Tribal Demography In India

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Tribal Demography
in India

C. B. Mamoria, M. A.

lecturer ', Mabarana Bbupal College , Udaipur (Raj)

With a Foreword by
Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, M.A., Ph. D.,

Director, Indian Institute jor Population Studies, Madras.

KITAB MAHAL

ALLAHABAD * DELHI BOMBAY

By the same Author :

i. Agricultural Problems of India (Second
Edition, 1957)

Y. ^t%^ iTta % fe^RT

%. Population and Family Planning in India

(In Press)

7. Indians Outside India

8. Social Disorganisation in

9. Socio-Economic
India

PUBLISHED BT KITAB MAHAL, j6-A ^ERO ROAD, ALLAHABAD
AND PRINTED BT ANUPAM PRESS, I ?, ZERO ROAD, ALLAHABAD

To

My Revered Gurus
Shri R. P. Gupta, M. A.,

(With whom I read during 1935-39)

and
Dr. R. N. Bagchi, M. A., Ph. D., (London}

(With whom I conducted Research during

1952-56)

With profound respect and devotion

This Monograph is humbly dedicated

as a token of gratitude and

memory of those happy

days.

, B. MAMORIA.

FOREWORD

For some strange reason, all the studies on Indian demo-
graphy, have hitherto ignored the question of India's abori-
ginal population. In fact, many do not know that we have
in our country more than fifty million aboriginals, the des-
cendants of some of the original settlers and earliest inhabi-
tants of India.

India is a melting pot in more than one sense. For cen-
turies different races and tribes, castes and communities have
met and mingled together and this gradual but incomplete
process of welding has left different groups at different levels
of cultural evolution. Today the population of India can
be roughly divided into the great majority of "civilised"
Indians of the plains and the minority of tribal population
of the hills and forests constituting about 16 per cent of
total population.

The tribals are scattered all over India but they are
mainly concentrated in three zones in the north-east, the
centre and the south. They are divided into several tribal
groups such as the Badagas, Bhils, Chenchus, Gonds,
Khonds, Mundas, Nagas, Nayadis, Oraons, Santhals, and
Savaras, etc. While these tribals have been our neighbours
for centuries we know relatively little about them or their
way of life.

In past, down to the early nineteenth century, the Govern-
ment of the day was so ignorant of Anthropology and Eth-
nology that they approached the tribals from the point of the
much needed peace in the land. All that mattered to the
Government was whether the tribals would co-operate with
the Government or not. Some of the tribals were even
labelled" Criminal Tribes". The Government confined some
millions of these people to what amounted to reservations*
forced innumerable disabilities on them, encroached upon
their land and other means of livelihood, widened the alrea-
dy existing isolation between the tribals and other Indians,
and allowed them to be exploited, unwittingly, of course,

VI FOREWORD

by the planter and the forester. Efforts to safeguard their
culture, language and the way of life were either lukewarm
or were lacking. It denied them education and medical
help, disputed their tribal organisation and practically took
away some of the things they cherished most, leaving no-
thing to take their place, and on the whole, made them
easy victims of exploitation by their "civilised" fellow-
Indians and proselytizing foreign missionaries. The alien
Government was more interested in collecting revenue and
maintaining law and order than in rehabilitating the lives of
these Submerged* groups. It must be said to the great
credit of the British Government, however, that despite
their laisse^ faire policy, they did put down the custom of
human sacrifice among some of the tribals.

With the advent of the political freedom, the situation
has, however, changed for the better, but still much needs
to be done. Today the welfare of the tribal population is the
subject of Article 6 of our Constitution, which says, "the
State shall promote with special care the educational and
economic interests of the weaker sections of the people and,
in particular, of the Scheduled Caste, and Scheduled Tribe,
and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of
exploitation." There is also special provision for separate
representation of the scheduled tribes in the Central Parlia-
ment and State legislatures. Article 275 of the Indian Cons-
titution provides financial help to the States for the develop-
ment of scheduled areas and for welfare schemes for sche-
duled tribes in the States.

But what is the basic policy behind this governmental
concern and welfare measure ? In the past official policy 1
has ranged between total non-interference with the triba-
population and forcing the tribals to adopt and adapt them s
selves to the Indian way of life. In practical policy thi
meant measures aimed at isolation which in turn meant no
restriction or regulation of any kind or assimilation which
involved bringing tribesmen down to the plains. Whatever
the policy, the fundamental basis should be not to disturb
the tribal way of life their customs and manners on the
one hand, and accelerate the process of assimilation,

FOREWORD Vll

integration and accentuation by persuasion on the other
hand. Such a policy would prevent the exploitation of
the tribals by others and at the same time provide them
with the amenities of modern life such as drinking water,
sanitation, public hygiene, medical aid and educational
opportunities.

A policy implies an adequate knowledge of the ways of
life of all tribal groups. A plan, if it is to be successful,
must be predicated upon objective facts and scientific data.
Here is the big gap in our knowledge. We know very
little of the growth of population of different tribes,
the economic, social and biological factors behind such
growth or decline, their fertility, morbidity and mor-
tality rates. We need more and reliable knowledge of their
family life, marriage pattern, sexual behaviour, social and
ritual structure, their levels of living and in a word, the
total demographic and cultural milieu in which they have
their being. It is true that we do have some able and
pioneering studies like those of Verrier Elwin, Hutton,
Risley, Haimendorf and others. But most of these studies
are either anthropological excursions or ethnographic sur-
veys. None of them go to the demographic roots. In
fact, we do not have a single demographic study of any one
of the tribes based on intensive field work. It is here that
Shri Mamoria breaks new ground in this study on the
Tribal Demography of India. This book is an able and
scholarly survey. He has carefully assembled all the avail-
able data, evaluated their worth and has drawn conclusions.
This book not only brings together data not available in
a handy form hitherto, but focusses attention on several
obscure points. Shri Mamoria deserves to be congratu-
lated on bringing out this monograph.

This study is useful in another and more important
direction. It reveals how little we know of Indian tribal
demography. What is the birth of the Chenchus ? What
is the infant mortality rate among the Bhils ? What
is the expectation of life at birth of the Mundas ? What
is the maternal mortality rate among the Nayadis ?
What is the sex ratio among the tribals ? What is their

V111 FOREWORD

survival rate ? Questions such as these can be asked with-
out end. At present the only answer is, "We do not
know". We need fundamental demographic research,
based on field work among everyone of these tribes on
the basis of census questionnaire and cohort analysis.
Without basic and scientific data, no sound administrative
policy can be formulated. Lord Keynes once remarked
that there is nothing a Government hates more than to
be well informed, for it makes the process of arriving at
decisions much more complicated and difficult. Public admi-
nistration can be defined as the art of reaching right deci-
sions on insufficient evidence. We must so change this
situation that every decision of the Government is backed
by a vast body of objective, scientific and unimpeachable
data. Here, in the case of our tribal population, the objec-
tive is not mere demographic research but sound know-
ledge on which our nation-building policies can be based.

The tribals are our brothers and sisters and they
should be levelled up to the highest potential possibilities.
Further, we want to evolve a strong and united India.
Despite the deep and fundamental unity pervading our
cultural evolution continually for some five thousand
years, we do not have a unified culture like the British,
German or French. Ours is a composite type and the
component parts stand out in bold relief, as in the United
States of America, where each immigrant group has
brought with it its own cultural patterns and blended them
into melting pot of the American way of life. In our coun-
try, the various regional, linguistic, religious and tribal
cultural blocks are only different aspects of the one Indian
culture. Despite the centripetal forces that are binding all
these different cultural patterns into one strengthening
unity, distinctive features of our provincial, regional and
tribal cultures still stand out in bold relief. They are bound
to continue and flourish, for India's cultural unity is bound
to be a federal one like that of the Soviet Union. India,,
thus presents a colourful diversity and a dull colourless
uniformity.

FOREWORD IX

This, of course, does not mean that the process of
assimilation and Indianisation of the small minority centri-
fugal cultural patterns has been completed. The lack of
assimilation does sometimes constitute a problem and raises
acute issues, though the fact that there is no immigration
of new groups into India is a great help in building up of
our nation. Leaders who have India's welfare at heart
might well profit by American experience in this regard.
An effort in the right direction will be an acceleration of
inter-caste, inter-provincial, inter-religious, inter-"Indian"-
tribal exchanges and marriages. To become a strong nation
India's communal, linguistic and tribal groups need not
be merged into a common mass as to resemble the colour-
less drab which results from mixing many colours. Rather
that these castes, linguistic groups and tribes might be
woven into a brilliant fabric, in which none of the colours
have been destroyed, but all preserved in their original
hues, and so blended as to gain new lustre from the new
associations and contrasts. Such an objective as this might
well be the basis of our policy towards our tribal minorities..

Gandhinagar, S. Chandrasekhar,

Madras, 20. M. A., Ph. D.,

1 5th August, 1957. Director,

Indian Institute for
Population Studies..

PROLOGUE

Historically Dravidian, Aryan and Buddhistic cultures
have made distinctive contributions in the shape of charac-
teristic institutions which, established in successive epochs
down to prehistoric times, existed side by side thereafter,
supplementing rather than supplanting one another, each
type serving a specific purpose or a particular class, while all
conduced collectively to render the entire system compre-
hensive as well as inter-related, to suit the needs, conven-
tions and determine the standards of times. The attainment
of freedom by our country has propped up many problems
touching Indian national life, which under an aUen rule
was lop-sided. The population of India is problematical
and still more the problem of its primitive tribes, the original
(Swadeshi) residents, which unfortunately has so far escaped
the attention of our scholars.

Prof. C. B. Mamoria's monograph on the "The Tribal
Demography in India" is the result of his sincere studies
and sound scholarship. There are many within the country
and abroad who require authentic information on this aspect
of our national life. Prof. Mamoria's monograph fills
the chasm in scholarship created by the biased accounts of
foreign missionaries and European travellers. Now that
India has a constitution and our Government has a genuine
interest for the upliftment of the primitive tribes as evidenc-
ed by the working of the First Five- Year Plan a study of
Indian tribal population through the angle of vision rightly
chosen by the learned scholar affords welcome release to
those interested in this problem. A profound scholar,
proficient in literature, keenly alive to all progressive ideas,
Professor Mamoria's versatile and dynamic personality is
set on a mental background calculated not merely to
vitalise and inspire, but to visualise and compel realisation.

It is a unique feature of the primitive tribes that no
external influence altered their character to this day. In
the very words of the author, "The aboriginals are the real

XH PROLOGUE

<c Swadeshi" and the oldest inhabitants of India in whose
presence every one is a foreigner". While touching all
aspects of the problem, in Prof. Mamoria's graphic descrip-
tion of the marriage rituals of the aboriginals, one finds
enough material of comparison and contrasts with the 8
types of marriages amongst the Hindus as described by
Manu.

If politics and polemics permeate to the fire-side and
the kitchen from the rostrum of the nationalist, if the
tempo of social life is to be refined, rustic aspirations ennobl-
ed, if amongst the primitive tribesmen there is more of
a saner attitude towards life, a growing readiness to strive
to look backward and to live forward, it is the indubitable
outcome of our population problem that this subject (Pri-
mitive tribes) must form an important feature in the study
of Economics, Geography, History and Sociology courses
of our Indian Universities and Prof. Mamoria's stupendous,
yet congested work must render great service to the cause
of our educational set-up in the modern times. The author
deserves to be heartily congratulated for this nice attempt.

Da ted Udaipur : S. S. KULSHRESHTHA,

The 20th Aug. /y. M. A. (Geog), M. A. (Econs)>

B. Com; L. L. B., Ph. D.,

(Geog.)

PREFACE

Since the achievement of Freedom and the adoption
of the New Constitution, greater attention has begun to be
given to the welfare of the so far neglected vast humanity
of tribals which number over 19 millions in India. No
doubt some valuable Reports have been issued, both by the
Central Government and some of the State Governments
yet the information is so vast and scattered that it is not
within the easy reach of the average advanced students as
well as the laymen and others interested in their welfare.
Necessity was, therefore, felt for a brief and sufficient
account of these people which could give a clear yet impartial
view of their present position and future prospects. This
monograph attempts to meet this need.

Being conscious of my own limitations of knowledge,
incompetency and ill-equipment to deal with this important
topic, I have ventured upon this project only in response to
an urge from a teacher in me, which I could not resist but
to act upon, for which I offer my due apology to the scho-
lars of the subject. I do not know how far I have been
able to handle this important problem, it is for the experts
to judge. An attempt has been made in this Monograph
to discuss such topics as the distribution and classification
of the tribes, their standard of living, their role in natio-
nal economy, their dietaries, sex and marriage rituals,
demography, housing and living conditions, education,
economic pursuits in which they are engaged, the problems
which confront them and how can their conditions be bet-
tered. A chapter in the beginning is also devoted to the
Peoples of India, over which a clear expression is generally
not available.

Needless to say that in preparation of this Monograph,
I have necessarily, drawn upon copiously on the existing
reports especially those of the Scheduled Castes and Sche-
duled Tribes' Commissioner for India and the Adam Jati
Sevak Sangh, and the various Census Reports as well as
individual surveys undertaken by the experts in the field

XIV PREFACE

for which I sincerely express my heart-felt thanks. I should
frankly confess that the writings of such eminent scholars
as Dr. V. Elwin, Dr. B. S. Guha, Dr. G. S. Ghurye, Dr.
J. H. Hutton, Dr. D. N. Majumdar, Prof. N. K. Bose, Late
Shri A. V. Thakkar, and N. Bhattacharjee and a host of
others have benefited me much. The debt to all these
authorities can better be realised than described in words.

I sincerely hope that this brochure will prove immense-
ly useful to the Post-Graduate students of M. A. (Geo-
graphy) and Sociology. It will be equally found profitable
by the laymen, social workers and others interested in the
welfare of these people.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. S. P. Chatterjee,
M. Sc., Ph. D., (London)., D. Litt (Paris), University Pro-
fessor and Head of the Department of Geography, Univer-
sity of Calcutta, who so kindly responded to my humble
request for an illuminating Foreword to this book. I am
also highly obliged to Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, M. A., Ph. D.,
Director, Indian Institute of Population Studies, Madras for
also providing me with a thought-provoking and learn ed
Foreword who in spite of heavy engagements did his job so
nicely. My friends Dr. S. S. Kulshreshta, M. A. (Econs);
M. A. (Geog.).,LL. B.,B. Com., Ph. D.,(Geog)., Professor
S. L. Doshi, M.A., and R. D. Saksena M. A., M. Com., also
deserve my hearty thanks for their kind words of encour-
agement and appreciation of this work. My publishers also
richly deserve my sincere thanks for giving such a nice
printing and get-up to this volume, and without whose
hearty co-operation this Monograph would not have seen
the light of the day.

If this monograph could stimulate among the educated
masses for their fellow brethren I would feel my labour
more than amply rev/arded.

UDAIPUR,
Aug. % 1957. C. B. MAMORIA

CONTENTS
Particulars Pages

Foreword v

Prologue xi

Preface xiii

1 . Peoples of India

I {vtroduction Racial Types and Elements Ris-
ley's Classification Subsequent Classifications
Guiffrida's Classification Haddon's Classifica-
tion Eickstedt's Classification--Dr. Guha'sClassi-
fication i. Negrito, 2. Proto-Australoid. 3. Mon-
goloid. 4. Conclusion ... i

2. Tribes in India

I. Introduction II. Their Origin III. Distribu-
tion of the Tribal People IV. Their Strength
and Growth ... 19

3. Tribes in India Their Classification

i. Introduction 2. Classification (i) Territo-
rial Distribution, (ii) Linguistic Distribution, (iii)
Occupational Distribution, (iv) Physical Charac-
teristics (v) Classification according to Culture-
Contact Process of Transformation of Tribal
Cultures Effects of Culture Contacts ... 33

4. Tribes in India Their Role in National
Economy

Introduction i. Agriculture. 2. Hunting, Fish-
ing and Gathering. 3. Handicrafts. 4. Mining.
5. Plantations. 6. Forestry. 7. Serf- Labour. ... 52

5 . Tribes in India Standard of Living

i. Dietaries 2. Health 3. Literacy 4. Housing
Conditions 68

TV1 CONTENTS

*6. Tribes in India Their Civil and Social Con-
ditions

Sex Distribution Menarche Marriage Pre-
marital ann Extra -marital Sex Relations Selec-
tion of Mates Forms of Marriage Divorce,
Remarriage and Widowhood Fertility Sterility
Control of Birth ... 86

7. Tribes in India The State Role in Their
Rehabilitation

Introduction Constitutional Provision Welfare
Activities (i) Educational (ii) Economic (iii)
Other Welfare Schemes Progress under the First
Five Year Plan Under the Second Plan Wel-
fare Departments ... 116

8 . Sol ution of the Problem

Three Solutions (i) Assimilation, (ii) Bringing
down Tribesmen to Plains, (iii) Isolation Prac-
tical Solution Conclusion ... 130

Bibliography ... ... 145

Index ... ... 149

i. PEOPLES OF INDIA
Introduction

The population of India is made up of many
strains which entered her territories at one time
or another from the older Palaeolithic to the
historical periods. Situated at the southern extre-
mity of the Asiatic land-mass at the head of the
Indian Ocean, flanked by high mountain ranges
on her northern and upper parts of her western
and eastern frontier, and with the sea separating
the shores of the remainder, India geographically
formed a naturally protected region into which
man could move only through gaps in the moun-
tain barriers. One of the results of her topogra-
phical conditions was that the races that had come
earlier and were in occupation of the country were
not destroyed, but pushed south and eastwards
and to this day they form some of the main
components of the population. Similarly the hills
and the forests gave shelter to a large number of
primitive tribes who were left comparatively
unmolested and had thus better chances of survi-
val, living their own life. Racial types still occur-
ring in the Indian population, therefore, contain
many extremely primitive strains and represent
elements from all the main divisions of mankind
not found elsewhere to the same extent.

Racial Types and Elements

The absence of standard techniques of measure-
ment and want of definite knowledge about racial

2 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

significance of the various physical traits in man,
explains diverse schemes of classification formu-
lated by ethnologists. The classification of the
Indian people (from anthropometric point of view)
was first attempted by Sir Herbert Risley in the
Census of India, 1901. He distinguished seven
different ethnic types in the population of India.
They are as follows :

Risley's Classification

1. The Indo- Aryan type which is found gene-
rally in the E. Punjab, Rajasthan, and Kashmir
and has as its characteristic members the Rajputs,
Khattris and Jats. The structure of these people
is mostly tall, complexion fair ; eyes dark ; hair on
face plentiful ; head long ; nose narrow and pro-
minent but not specially long. This race covers
about 75 per cent of the population of India.

2. The Dravtdian type inhabits the southern
part of India especially Madras, Hyderabad, south-
ern portion of M. P., and the Chota Nagpur.
Its most characteristic representatives are the
Paniyans of Malabar and the Santhals of the Chota
Nagpur. They are probably the original type of
the population of India and now modified to a
varying extent by the admixture of the Aryans, the
Scythians, and the Mongoloid elements. In typical
specimen the structure is very short or below mean;
the complexion very dark (approaching black)
hair plentiful, with an occasional tendency to curl;
eyes dark ; head long ; nose very broad, some-
times depressed at the root, but not so as to make

PEOPLES OF INDIA 3

the face appear flat They form about 20 per cent
of the population of India.

3. Mongoloid type is distributed like a belt
along the Himalayan region, Nepal and Assam.
They are represented by the Kanets of Lahul and
Kulu ; luepchas of Darjeeling and Sikkim. Their
chief features are : the head is broad, complexion
dark (with a yellowish tinge), hair on face scanty ;
stature short or below average ; nose from fine to
broad ; face characteristically flat, and eyelids often
oblique.

4. The Aryo-Dravidian (or Hindustan} type
is the intermixture in varying proportions of the
Aryans and the Dravadians. They are found in
U. P., in parts of Rajasthan and in Bihar, and
are represented in its upper strata by the Brahman
and in its lower by the Harijans. The head form
in them is generally long with a tendency to
medium ; the complexion varies from lightish
brown to black ; the nose ranges from medium to
broad ; (being always broader than among the
Indo-Aryans) ; the stature is lower than in the
latter group and usually below the average height.

5. The Mongolo-Dravidian (or Bengali) type
is found in Bengal and Orissa (comprising of
Bengal Brahmins and Bengali Kayasthas). This
type is a blend of the Dravidians and Mongoloid
elements, with a strain of Indo-Aryan blood in the
higher groups. The head is broad and round,
complexion dark ; hair on the face plenty ; nose
usually medium with a tendency to flatness in

4 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

some cases. The stature is medium and some-
times short.

6. The Scytho- Dravidian type is an admixture of
the Scythians and the Dravidians. They generally
inhabit the hilly tracts of M. P., Saurashtra and
Coorg. The Scythian element is more prominent
in higher social groups of these regions, while the
Dravidian features are more prominent in the
lower groups. This type has lower stature, a
greater length of head, moderately fine nose, fair
complexion and hair on the body quite scanty.

7. The Turko-Iranian type is now found in
Afghanistan and Baluchistan.

Risley does not mention anything about the
Negrito element in the population of India. But
the occurrence of Negrito element in some of the
pre- Dravidian tribes cannot be denied. Iyer
observes wooly hair among the Kadars, and
Pulayas of Cochin and also among the Uralis and
Kanikars. The infiltration of the Negroid element
must have taken place during the 8th to roth
century A. D. Haddon has referred to an early
dark Negroid race in Susiana and its drift to India
is not impossible. 1 Lapique also found some
distinct Negro faces near South Indian virgin
forests. Hutton has shown that there is a Negrito
substratum in the population of the eastern fron-
tiers of India.
Subsequent Classifications

After Risley various anthropologists have tried

1 A. C Haddon, The Wanderings of Peoples, 1919,
p. 25.

PEOPLES OF INDIA 5

to classify the Indian people but none could give
a, precise and scientific classification till the census
of 193 1 when Dr. Guha revised the earlier accounts
and made a classification of the Indian people.

Giuffrida's Classification

According to Giuffrida Ruggeri, the following
ethnic classification of India can be made :

(/) Negritos^ Veddahs (in Ceylon) and some
southern Indian jungle tribes.

(/'/) Pre-Dravidians or Australoid, Veddaic,
Santhals, Oraons, Mundas and Hos, etc.

(///) Dravidians. Telegu and Tamil-speaking
people.

(/'#) Tall Dolicho-cephalic elements^ Todas.
Haddon's Classification

According to Haddon, India is divided into
three main geographical regions, vi%. the Himala**
yas, the northern plains and the southern mostly
jungle-covered plateau. In his opinion the racial
history of India is not yet thoroughly known. The
following racial elements are noticed in :

(a) the Himalayas, (/) Indo- Aryan s y Kanets>
east of the Punjab with a trace of the
Tibetan blood.

(/'/) Mongoloid. In Nepal and in higher moun-
tains.

() The main racial element of the plain is
the Indo-Afghan. The Jats and the Raj-
puts are the representatives of this type.

6 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(c) For the main population of Deccan,
Haddon uses the term Dravidian. The
main racial elements, as observed by him,
in Deccan are :

(/) Negrito. A suspected strain is taken into
account. It is represented by the Kadars.

(//) Pre-Dravidians. The Santhals and the

Mundas are the best examples.
(///') Dravidians. Tamil Brahmins, the people

of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore are

included in this group.
(iv) Southern Brachy-cephals. Parava (fishermen

of the Tinnevellay Coast) and Pariyan

(of Tamil district).

(//) Western Brachy-cephals. are represented by
the Nagar Brahmins, Coorgs, etc.

The position of Todas is anomalous.
Eickstedt's Classification

Freiherr von Eickstedt (who led the German
Indian Anthropological Expedition in this country
in India during 1926-29) has classified the Indian
people both from physical and cultural points of
view. He has given four main divisions :

I. Weddid or Ancient Indians. Primitive people
of jungles. It is divided into :

(a) Gondid. Dark brown complexion, curly
hair, totemistic, mattock-using culture,
matriarchal influence the Oraons, the
Gonds, etc.

PEOPLES OF INDIA J

(b) Malid. Hair is curly with black brown
colour, originally ancient culture with
foreign influence the Kurumbas and
Veddahs, etc.

II. Melanid or Black Indians. Radially mixed
group. It is divided into

(a) South Melanid. Black brown people in
the most southern plains of India with
strong foreign matriarchy the Yanadi.

(b) Kolid. Primitive people with dark brown
complexion of the north Deccan forest,
strong totemistic and matriarchal influ-
ence the Santhals, the Mundas.

III. Indld or New Indians. Racially advanced
people of the open region. They are divided into

(a) Gracile Indid. Brown people with gracile
appearance, have enforced patriarchy
the Bengalis.

(b) North Indid. Light brown people, possi-
bly original patriarchal headmanship the
Todas, the Rajputs.

IV. Palae-Mongoloid. Palayan from Wynad.

Dr. Guha's Classification

According to Dr. B. C. Guha the following
are the ethnic composition of the present-day
Indian population :

1. The Negrito.

2. The Proto-Australoid

3. The Mongoloid.

8 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(a) Palae-Mongoloid.
(/') Long-headed type.
(//) Broad-headed type.
() Tibeto-Mongoloid.

4. The Mediterranean

(a) Palae-Mediterranean.
() Mediterranean.
(c) Oriental Type.

5. The Western Brachy-cephals or the Alpo-
Dinaric.

(a) Alpinoid.

(b) Dinaric.

(c) Armenoid.

6. The Nordic.

i. The Negrito

There have been continued disputes regarding
the existence of Negroid strain in Indian popula-
tion. As a mater of fact one finds true Negrito
people in the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of
Bengal, in New Guinea, the Philippines and also in
the Semangs and Sakais of the Malaya Peninsula.
On the mainland of India Lapique claims the
existence of a Negrito strain among some of the
forest tribes of Southern India. The wooly hair
(which is anthropologically indicative of Negro
blood) is to be found among the Kadars and Pula-
yans of Travancore-Cochin, and probably also
among the Irules and primitive tribes of the

PEOPLES OF INDIA

Wynaad. But Thurston denies the above state-
ment. On the contrary Guiffrida Ruggeri
thinks that among many of the south Indian
jungle tribes Negritos who are supposed to have
been there before the pre-Dravidians, are still to
be found. Haddon admits that a Negroid popula-
tion has been suspected in the Deccan ( e. g.
among the Kardars^ but it has not been definitely
established^ Dr. Hutton has given much attention
to the Negrito problem. According to him Negrito
substratum is found in the population of eastern
frontier of India. He has found out distinctly
frizzly hair among some of the Angami Nagas of
Manipur and Cachar Hills.* The Negrito strain
has also been found by Dr. Guha, among the
Kadars and some other hill tribes, f S. Sarkar
also found spirally twisted hair among many
aboriginal tribes of the Rajmahal Hills. $. Dr.
Hutton generalising the facts writes, "The earliest
inhabitants of Indian Peninsula were probably
Negroid in type and the Negrito rapidly dis-
appearing though he is, still survives in the Anda-
man Islands but he has left a few traces on the

mainland of India (and Burma). In the Kadars
and Uralis of the forests of the extreme south of
India occasional individuals with frizzly hair and
low stature and Negro-like features are very sug-
gestive of the survival of the Negro race.'' Guif-
frida Ruggori maintains the pre-existence of

* J. N. Hutton, Man in India (1927), p.
f B. S. Guha, Nature (1929), p. 123.
$ S. Sarkar, Nature (1936), p. 37.

10 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Negritos between India and Persian Gulf and their
survivals in Susiana up to historic times.

In the Bay of Bengal, in the Malaya Peninsula,
in parts of the Fiji Islands, in the New Guinea, in
Southern India and southern Arabia, the presence
of a Negritos or a suspected Negroid substratum
induces one to suppose that at some remote pre-
historic time a Negroid population occupied a
very great part of the Asiatic mainland and spe-
cially the southern part of it. Subsequently, on
arrival of the pre-Dravidians and the Dravtdians,
who proved themselves stronger, this primitive
population might have been dispersed, extinct or
absorbed. At the present time they are not found
in any strength but only as remnants of an ancient
race pushed into the hills of south-western India
where they were partially absorbed by other tribes,
but in more isolated inaccessible tracts such as
Perrambiculum they were segregated and preserved
their features.

The chief characteristics of these Negritos
are as follows. The texture of the hair is fine and
of wooly nature, they are of pigmy stature, the
mean being below 5 ft., small head, bulbous fore-
head, smooth brow-ridges and feeble chins. They
are dark in colour. Head form is variable ; it may
be round, medium or long. Their limbs are delicate
"with arms long in relation to the legs. The face is
short and protruding and the nose flat and broad
and the lips are thick and everted.

What the Negritos contributed to the Indian
culture is not known, but there is some ground

PEOPLES OF INDIA II

for thinking that the cult of the ficus tree origi-
nated from them.

2. The Proto-Australoid

Most probably the second immigrants were
the Proto-Austroloid or the Pre-Dravidians, whose
earliest ancestors could be traced to Palestine.
But when and by which way they came is still
unknown. However, this type is the predomi-
nant element at present in almost all the tribal
population in India, especially southern, central
and partly northern. Their great affinities in skin,
colour, head form, hair, face, etc., with the Ved-
dahs of Ceylon, Australian and the Melanesians
indicate that the four belong to the same type.
But whether this people migrated out of India or
are immigrants into India cannot yet be definitely
known. Pot their affinity with the Australians
the term Proto-Australoid is given. It is true that
in the typical Australians the brow-ridges are
extremely stout, the nasal root very sunken, and
there is an abundance of bodily hair not usual in
Indian tribes, but there is a large number, especial-
ly among such tribes at the Chenchus^ Malayans*
Kitrnmbas^ and the Yeruvas of South India and
among many members of the Mnnda^ Ko/ y Santhals
and Bhils groups where these characteristics are
also marked. The exterior castes of Hindu society
throughout the greater part of the country are
also mainly constituted from this racial strain.

The physical features of this type are : colour
dark brown to nearly black, long head, broad and

12 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

flat nose but depressed at the root, wavy and even
curly hair, fleshy everted lips, and short stature.

This race contributed a lot towards Indian
culture. To them may perhaps be attributed a
large share of totemistic rites, exorcism, food
taboos and magical beliefs still obtaining in Indian
life. The ban on commensality and inter-marriage
which forms the basis of caste system must also
owe its origin to them.

3. The Mongoloid

The Mongoloid people came into India from
their homes in north-western China about the
middle of the first millenium B. c. to Tibet, and
in subsequent centuries they penetrated the plains
of the North and East Bengal and the hills and
the plains of Assam. Though the difficult land
routes in the north and north-east have always
stood in the way of large-scale invasions or migra-
tions yet slow infiltration could not have been
checked and the three types of the Mongoloid
people are still found in the north-eastern India in
Assam, Nepal and parts of eastern Kashmir. This
type differs from the other group by the following
special characters : (/') Flat face with prominent
cheek bones, (/'/) almond-shaped eyes, and (///)
scanty hair growth on body and face.

As said above the Mongoloid group contains
three types, vi^ : (a) The Palae-Motigoloid who
are of more primitive nature and do not exhibit
the characters so conspicuously. It is distinguished
by the form of the head, long to medium with

PEOPLES OF INDIA I)

bulging occiput nose, medium, eye-slits oblique,
face short and flat with prominent cheek bones,
dark to light brown skin. This variety is known
as the 'Long-headed type. They are predominant in
the tribes such as the Nagas living in the sub-
Himalayan regions, Assam and Burma Frontier.
It extends far into Yunnan and south-eastern China.
The Semi Naga is the true representative of this
type. () The other one of this group, the Broad-
headed type is found in the hill tribes of Chitta-
gong (such as the Chakmas and the Mftghs) now
in Pakistan. The Lepachas of Kalimpong are also
included in this group. Their head is broad, nose
medium., darker skin, obliquity of eye-slits and
eye* folds are more marked. The face is short and
flat. The character of the hair is straight but
tending towards short waves (wavy).

(b) The Tibeto-Mongoloid. They are broad-
headed people with light skin, tall stature, flat and
broad nose, very marked face with long and flattish
character. The absence of hair on body and face
are more marked. They are found in Sikkim and
Bhutan.

The Mongoloid type had exerted a great
influence on the culture of India. The use of
milk, tea, rice, paper, terraced cultivation, com-
munal houses, head-hunting and betelnut culture
may be mentioned as the contributions of the
Mongoloid races. To one of its branches Oceanic
we also owe the introduction of outrigger canoe
the cocoanut and the pine apple.

14 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The three types Negrito, Proto-Australoid
and the Mongoloid constitute the main tribal
population in India. In addition to these, the
general population contains mainly the Mediterra-
nean, the Alpo-Dinaric and the Nordic races. Of
these the Mediterranean group is the largest.
There is not one uniform type of this race but
rather a number of closely graded types charac-
terised by the common possession of moderate
stature, long head, slightly built body and dark
complexion. This group probably differentiated in
the southern steppes of northern Africa and
the adjoining Asiatic mainland, and following
the northward movement of the storm zone at the
close of the Ice-age, drifted both westwards and
eastwards. Three distinct types of this race can be
distinguished in India :

(a) The Palae-Mediterranean. Dark skin, long
head with high vault and projecting occiput,
narrow face but disharmonic in character, broad
nose, medium stature, hair growth scanty on body
and face, are the distinguishable characters of this
people. This type appears to be predominant
in the Telugu and Tamil Brahmins of South India.

The Palae-Mediterraneans probably brought
pottery, Megalithic culture, with its associated
fertility rites and human sacrifice, and it seems
likely that they were responsible for introducing
matriarchal institutions and the high position of
women in peninsular India.

(b) The Mediterranean Type. This type is respon-
sible for the development of Indus Civilization

PEOPLES OF INDIA IJ

and were subsequently dispersed by the Aryan-
speaking Vedic invaders who came from the
Northern Mesopotamian regions about 2,500 B.C.
via Iran to the Gangetic basin and to a smaller
extent, beyond the Vindhyas. It forms today a
dominant element in the population of northern
India and occupies chiefly the East Punjab,
Kashmir, Rajasthan and U. P. This type is rep-
resented by Marhattas of M. B ; Brahmins of U.P.
and Cochin, Bombay and Malabar.

Dark to olive brown skin, head and face long,
narrow nose, medium to tall stature, slender build
of the body, the growth of hair on face and body
much more pronounced, better developed chin,
and large open eyes are the chief features of this
people.

This race developed the civilization of the
Indus valley, and to it we owe the largest content
of the present-day Indian religion and culture.
Most of the common domestic animals, river
transport, garments, the structure of houses, the
use of brick, painted pottery and the building of
towns are due to them. Astronomy and the Indian
script are also their contributions.

(c) The Oriental Race of Fischer (or the Semitic
Type). The chief concentration of this race has
always been in Asia Minor and Arabia, from
where it must have come to India. This type
resembles the Mediterranean except in nose for-
mation, which is long and convex and this type
is strongest in the Punjab but throughout Rajas-
than and the westen U.P. it is common.

1 6 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(d) The Western-Brachy-Cepbals (Broad-heads)
came into India from the west. They are designat-
ted as Alpine (from their associations with that
European regions) ; Dinarics (from the Dinaric
Alps which stretch from Dalmatia to Croatia) and
the Armenoids.

(a The Alpanoids. Skin lighter than the Medi-
terraneans, head broad with round occiput round
face, with prominent narrow nose, stature medium,
sometimes short, hair growth in abundance on
body and face, the body thick-set and strongly
built are the main criteria of this group. This type
possibly moved from southern Baluchistan through
Sind, Saurasthra, Gujarat, Maharastra into
Kannada, Tamilnad and Ceylon and along the
Ganges to Bengal. The intermediate Malabar and
Andhra country remained unaffected. The people
of this group are found in Saurashtra, (Kathts},
Gujarat (Banias), and Bengal (Kayasthas). The
major racial strains of Bengal and Bombay belong
to this group.

(b) The Dinaric. Skin slightly darker, head
not so broad but very short with flattened vertical
-occiput and vault very high, forehead seems to be
rather receding slightly, face comparatively long,
nose long and often convex, stature tall are the
main features of this sub -type. The presence of
this sub-type is very marked in Bengal, Orissa
and Coorg mixed with the Mediterraneans.

(c) The Arntenoid. Twany white skin, short to
medium stature, broad head, narrow and aquiline
nose with a depressed tip and broad wings. The

PEOPLES OF INDIA 17

Parsees of Bombay are the true representatives of
this group. The occurrence of this type among
the Bengali Vaidyas and Kayasthas in not a rare
one.

(d} The Nordics. This race came last of all
from the north and belonged to the Northern
Steppe folk, moving south-westwards in a great
racial wave along the Kassites, they swept into
north-west India somewhere during the second
millenium B. c. This type bears the following
physical features ; fair skin, head long often
medium with arched forehead and occiput
protruding, prominent narrow nose with tall
stature. In north India this type is noticed but
marked by admixture with the Mediterraneans.
The sprinkling of this element has reached the
western side of India and well as far east in Bengal.

This type contributed a lot to the culture of
India. They brought horses, probably iron and
best variety of wheat. The use of milk, alcoholic
drinks, dicing, chariot racing, and tailored gar-
ments were due to them. They introduced
patriarchy in Indian social life, but their chief
gift was the Aryan language. They have been,
in fact, directly or indirectly responsible for
most of the glories of Indian literature, philo-
sophy and art.

Conclusion

From what has been stated above it will be
found that the present population of India is an
admixture of almost all the races of the modern
world with some variations due to climate and

1 8 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

environmental influences. Though ethnic zones
can be demarcated according to the predominance
of the groups, it must be clearly understood that
no rigid separation is possible as there is consi-
derable overlapping of types. The Negrito is
nearly extinct. The Proto-Australoids are found
in. distant parts, almost in secluded areas in the
h illy regions and jungles of southern, western and
central India. The Mongoloid group were not
intermixed with the whole population though
scattered and stray cases may be found in the
north-eastern regions. The Mediterraneans gra-
dually settled in the Indus valley, the present
desert tracts and travelled along the Ganges valley.
These settlements and movements were the results
of fresh incursions, fights, defeats and conquests.
This group and the Alpine groups with a sprinkl-
ing of Nordics settled and intermixed in vast
northern plain. In the Ganges valley we find in
the upper portion a dominance of the Medi-
terraneans, while in the lower valley (in Bengal),
the Alpo-Dinaric is decidedly dominant. While
the Mediterranean and the Alpo-Dinaric groups
with some proto-Australoid, settled down,
intermixed and became dominant in the area south
of the Vindhyas, the Nordic or the Proto-Nordic
is scarcely found in the Deccan excepting a very
few in the Central India region.

2. TRIBES IN INDIA
I. Introduction

The peoples of India include a very large num-
ber of primitive tribes who subsist on hunting,
fishing or by simple forms of agriculture. Various
authorities have described them by different names.
Sir Herbert Risley and Lacey, Mr. Elwin and Shri
A. V. Thakar called them ''Aboriginals" 1 ; Sir
Baines included them under the category of ''Hill
Tribes" 2 ; Mr. Grigson regards them as "hill tribes
or wilder aboriginals" while Mr. Shoobert called
them "aborigines'' 3 . They have been regarded as
"animists" by Mr. Tallents, Mr. Sedgwick, Mr.
Martin 4 and Dr. Hutton calls them as "primitive
tribes" 5 and Mr. Baines calls them "jungle people,
forest tribes or folk" 6 . Mr. Elwin calls the Baigas,
the "original owners of the country/' 7 The

1 H. Risley, The Peoples of India (1904), p. 218; Lacey,
Census of India (Bihar and Orissa), 1931, p. 288-9; V. Elwin,
The Loss of the Nerves, p. I. ; A.V. Thakar, The Problems of
Aborigines in India (1941). p. i.

2 Baines, Ethnography, p. 112, 113.

3 Shoobert, Census of India (C. P. and Berar Report),
1931. p. 312.

4 Tallent, Census of India (B. and O. Report), 1921. p.
125; Sedgwick, Bombay Census Report 1921; p. 67; Martin,
Census of India, 1921, Vol. i Pt. I p. no-iii.

5 Hutton, Census of India> 1931, Vol. I Pt. I. p. 391.

6 Baines, Census oflndia 9 1891, Vol. I, Pt. I. p. 158.

7 V. Elwin, The 1$aigas, p. 519.

20 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

eminent Indian anthropologist and sociologist, Dr.
Ghurye calls them "Backward Hindus" 8 . Dr. Das
and Das rename them as "submerged humanity" 9
Article 342 of the Indian Constitution relates to a
special provision in respect of "Scheduled Tribes/'
which are defined as the "tribes or tribal com-
munities or parts of or groups within tribal com-
munities which the President may specify by
public notification." The tribal groups are pre-
sumed to form the oldest ethnological sector of the
national population. The term "Adivasis" (Adi-
original; Vasi-inhabitant) has recently become
current to designate these groups.

It may be pointed out here that different and
often contradictory criteria have been used by the
administrators, the lawyers, the sociologists and
the anthropologists as a basis of their definition,
such as colour of the skin, language, customs,
tribal conditions and living standards. Every
country containing a large number of such popula-
tion has tackled the problem of definition in its
own way, according to its own tradition, history,
social organisation and policies.
II. Their Origin

The origin of India's Scheduled Tribes has
been traced to such races as the Proto-Australoids,
who one time practically covered the whole of
India; secondly, the Mongolians who are still

8 G. S. Ghurye, The Aboriginals So-Called And Their
future (1943), p. 21

9 Dr. R. K, Das and S. R. Das, India's Submerged
Humanity, in Modern Review (Oct., 1955), p. 269.

TRIBES IN INDIA 21

located mostly in Assam, and finally, to a limited
extent, also to the Negritos strain as indicated by
frizzy hair, among the Andarnanese and the Kadars
of the South-west.

The Scheduled Tribes of India are the earliest
inhabitants or indigenous peoples of the country,
who were unable to defend themselves and were
gradually forced to recede before the invading
hoards of such peoples as the Dravidians, Indo-
Aryans and Mongolians coming from the West,
North-west and North-east respectively, who were
not only superior in numerical strength but also
in mechanical equipment. The indigenous peoples
thus took shelter in the mountain depths and
thick jungles, where a considerable number of them
are still found and have been estimated to be about 5
millions. Those who were left behind on the
plains gradually disappeared either by absorption or
by acculturalization.

Though these original tribes in India have been
divided and sub-divided into a large number of
subtribes, all mutually exclusive, each having the
endogamous and exogamous clans with their town
names and their own customs. The common
features of all these tribes are :

(1) They live away from the civilized world
in the inaccessible parts lying in the
forests and hills,

(2) They belong either to one of the three
stocks Negritos, Austroloids or Mango-
liods,

(3) Speak the same tribal dialect,

22 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(4) Profess primitive religion known as
"Animism" in which the worship of
ghosts and spirits is the most important
element,

(5) Follow primitive occupations such as
gleaning, hunting, and gathering of
forest produce,

(6) They are largely carnivorous or flesh and
meat eaters,

(7) They live either naked or semi-naked
using tree barks and leaves for clothing,
and,

(8) They have nomadic habits and love for
drink and dance. 10

The Tribal Welfare Committee which met
under the auspices of the Indian Conference of
Social Welfare Work at Calcutta and consisted
of anthropologists and other social workers,
recommended the following classifications of the
existing tribes :

(1) Tribal Communities or those who are still
confined to the original forest habitats
and follow the old pattern of life;

(2) Semi-Tribal Communities or those who
have more or less settled down in rural
areas and have taken to agriculture
and allied occupations;

(3) Accitltured Tribal Communities or those
who have migrated to urban or semi-

10 Report of the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes 1952.

TRIBES IN INDIA 25

urban areas and are engaged in modern
industries and vocations and have adopted
modern cultural traits; and

(4) Totally Assimilated Tribals in the Indian
population. ^

IIL Distribution of the Tribal People

The chief home of the tribes is in the barren
and sparsely populated tracts of hills and jungles,
corresponding in extent fairly closely to east
Satpuras but encroaching eastwards and west-
wards along the Vindhyan range through the south
of Madhya Bharat Plateau on the eastern extremity
of Gujarat. The only other tract where they are
numerous are the outlying parts of Assam range
and the hilly country that divides Assam from
Burma. The geographical distribution of abori-
ginals in India is reported as falling into three main
regions in which they are concentrated :

Firstly, the tribal people are distributed all over
the sub-Himalayan region and the mountain valleys
on the Eastern Frontiers of India which merge im-
perceptibly with those of Burma in the south-east,
i.e. in Assam, and the Central Khasi and Garo Hills.

Secondly, the other major groups of the abori-
ginal tribes occupy the mountain belt between
Nurbada and the Godawari the Central barrier
that divides the North from the Peninsular India
has provided a shelter for these tribes from very
ancient times. This region extends to the Santhal
Parganas in the east, Hyderabad in the south and

24 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Rajasthan Gujarat with a strong Bhil population in
the west or north-west.

Thirdly f , the third group is found chiefly concen-
trated in the southernmost parts of the Western
Ghats stretching from Wynaad to Cape Comorin,
i.e. south of the Kistna river below latitude 16
north. From the fact that they occupy the margi-
nal areas and also from the records in the oldest
Tamil literature of the Sangam period, they appear
to be one of the most ancient and primitive inhabi-
tants now living in India having been pushed by
the intrusion of more advanced people into their
present habitats, where safety and shelter were
found against increasing pressure.

In addition to these three major zones, there
are small groups in some parts of the country or
within the Indian political boundaries. Of these
the Andamanese and the Nicobarese who live in the
Islands bearing their names, though now separated
from the main body of India's aboriginal tribes >
are ethnically connected with them, i'
IV. Their Strength and Growth

The aboriginal population of India is the most
numerous of those in Asia concerning whom more
or less detailed information is available. Doubts
have been expressed about the reliability of their
numbers for two reasons. Firstly, because of the
difficulty of classification and secondly, because of
deliberate misrepresentation; as after 1909, with the
inauguration of the separate religious electorates,
there had been an increasing pressure on the part
of religious groups to swell their number in the

TRIBES IN INDIA 2fr

Census. As a result of these errors, the data on the
tribals are most inaccurate of all those gathered by
the Census. The net effect is to understate the
number of tribals and correspondingly to over-
state the number of other gr oup.

Some of the most recent statements concerning
their numbers insist on the unreliability of the
1941 Census figures. "Adivasis, as they are now
called, number not less than 30 millions accord-
ing to the verdict of scientists at the last session
of the Indian Science Congress. As the process
of absorption and acculturation has gone on for
centuries and the Census enumeration of Adivasis.
is unreliable, it would be nearer the truth to say
that ethnically, tribal numbers would be four
times what is shown in the Census/' 11 Another
source states that, "the 1941 Census figures for
these people have proved to be rather misleading^
for the aboriginals were confused with the so-
called untouchables in certain places in the Census
returns. In the last 20 years, however, they must
have grown in numbers in keeping with the
growth of the general population. The figure of

25 million may not be too wide of the mark

There is nothing common between the Aboriginals
and the Harijans, or the so-called untouchables ^
because the latter are enthnically indentical with
the Hindus." 1 *

nl. Singh, Development and Adivasis, in Asian Labour*
Vol. I. No. 4 (Jan. 1950). p. 52.

12 S. Chandrasekhar, India's Population Facts and Policy,
p. 39-40-

26 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The following table gives the absolute number
of persons belonging to the tribal religion : 1 3

Year Number in Lakhs Number Per cent of the

per 10,000 total pop.

1881 6,426,511 258 2-58

1891 9,112.018 323 3'23

1901 8.584,148 292 2'92

1911 10,295,165 328 3.28

1921 9,775,000 309 3'09

1931 8,280,000 236 2-36

In 1931 and earlier censuses, a table classifying
the population by the religion professed was pub-
lished. Another table was also published showing
the population analysed by Race/Caste/Tribe. The
system was changed in 1941. In place of two
tables a single set was prepared in which popula-
tion groups were differentiated into "Communi-
ties" on a composite basis with reference to the
answers to the Census question on "Religion" as
well as c< Race/Caste/Tribe." According to this
change in classification, the number of the persons
of tribal origin was 25,441,489 as against 22,615,708
in 1931. According to these two figures, the growth
in the number of aborigines would be 12$% or
slightly less than that of the total population. 1 4

In 1948 the Conference of Social Workers and
Anthropologists for tribal people estimated their
number to about 25 millions of which 20 millons
live in the plains and are assimilated with the rest

13 Census of India^ 1901, p. 576 ; Ii/V/for 1921, p. no
and Ibid for 1931, p. 587.

14 Census of India 1931, Vol. I. Pt. 2. p. 522-33 and Pt. i.
p. 503.

TRIBES IN INDIA ZJ

of the people, more or less, and only 5 millions
may he taken as the population residing in the
hills. 15 According to the 1951 Census, their num-
ber amounts to about 20 millions and they form
about 5-6 per cent of the total population of India.

The numerical strength of a tribe ranges from
few hundreds to more than z million, as for exam-
ple, among the Santhals (2,732,266 in 1941) and
the Bhils (2,330,270) and tha Gonds (3,201,004).
Some of the tribes have increased in number while
others have declined considerably and hold their
lives on slender terms. The following table will
indicate the trend of tribal demography in India : " "

16

Name of Tribe

1921

1931

1941

1951

Chenchu

12,402

10,342 12,898

N.A.

Kota

1,201

!,121

952

N.A.

Tod a

640

597

630

879

Nayadi

301

296

250

N.A,

Mavillar

1,737

1,341

N.A,

Gadaba

53,770

48,154

74,813

54,454

Malpaharis

38,972

37,437

40,498

374

Bhoksa

7,628

7,618

274

N, A.

Badaga

45,821

43,075

56,047

67,286

Naga Tribes

1,47,262

1,39,965 2,

80,370

N. A.

Angami Nagas

51,730

49,239

52,080

28,678

Lhota Nagas

18,309

18,238

19.374

22,402

And a man cse

786

460

...

27

In the following table will be

found

a number

1 5 Report of the Conference of the Social Workers and
Anthropologists for Tribals in India (1948). p. 2-3.

16 Census of India 1931, Vol. L Pt. I. p. 391 ; for
1941 ; and Census of India Paper No. i, 1954 Languages*
1951 Census ; p. 8.

TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

of larger tribal groups who have shown consider*
able increase in numerical strength and also those
who have shown increase but such increase has
not been progressive : * 7

Name of

1931

2,024
2,013,177
2,350
3,069,069
523,184
15,024
88,336
345.248
1,46,037
7,41,078
2,37,847
6,58,450
1,021,355
25,08,789
64,403

From the above table, it will be gathered that
in India the most important tribes are Gond, San-
thai, Bhil, Oraon, Kond and Munda all of these
taken together numbered 18,838,239 in 1941.
Other tribes, over 180 of them, numbered less
than 500,000 each.

In the 1951 Census, however, in conformity
with the Government's policy of discouraging
community distinctions based on caste, information
about Race, Caste or Tribe has been collected only

17 Census of India, 1921, Vol. I Pt. I. p. 112; Ibid,
1931, Vol. I. Pt. 1 p. 391 and Ibid 9 1941. And Census of
ltidia> Paper No. i. p. 10-17.

Tribe

1911 1921

Aeur

3,716 2,245

Bhils

1,067,792 1,795,808

Birhors

2,299 1,810

Gond

2,902,592

Ho

4,20,179 440,174

Juang

12,823 10,454

Katkari

91,841 81,202

Kachari

207,266

Kharai

1,33,657 1,24,521

Khond

7,50,289 6,98,668

Khonva

2,00,077 1,85,553

Munda

5,58,200 5,59,662

Oraon

8,35,994 8,42,902

Santhal

20,78,035 21,89,511

Tharu

63,629 61,751

1951
1,510
1,160,299
N. A.
1,232,886
599,876
12,559
N. A.
N, A.
N.A.
280,561
N. A.
5,85,211
6,44,042
27,32,266 28,11,578
61,366 N.A,

1941
4.564
22,48,152
2,755
3,201,004
3,83/737
17,032
69,170
4,28,733
1,67,669
7,44,904
2,05,638
7,06.869
1,122,926

TRIBES IN INDIA 29

from certain groups of people who have specifi-
cally been referred to in the Constitution. Accord-
ingly, a person is a member "Spscial of a Group'*
if he is a member of a "Scheduled Caste/* of a
"Scheduled Tribe," or of any other Backward
Class or if he is an "Anglo-Indian." Thus most of
the submerged peoples fall into three categories,
namely, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
Backward Classes, numbering respectively 20*55,
55-0, and 35*6 millions or 5*6, 15-3 and 9*3 per
cent of the total population. In other words,
1 10-6 millions or 30*2 per cent of the total popula-
tion of India are backward in social, educational
and economic achievements, as indicated below :

India's Submerged Population in

Submerged Number in Million

population

Scheduled Castes 20*0

Scheduled Tribes 55-019

Backward Glasses 35*6

Total Backward

People 110-6 32-2

In addition to the above three groups of peo-
ples, there are 198 Ex-Criminal Tribes, although
the exact number of their population is not known.

The following table gives the distribution of
tribal population in different parts of the country

18 The Second Five Year Plan gives these figures as :
Scheduled tribes, 19 million ; Scheduled castes 51 million ;
and Criminal Tribes, 4 million. Second Five Year Plan,
1956, p. 588.

19 See the Indiagram, The Embassy of India, Washing-
ton, July 1 8, 1955, p. 742.

30 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

and the percentage of tribal population to total
population :

% age of the

Total Aboriginal Tribal Population

State Population 20 to the Total! 1

Population

Assam 17,35,245 33-9

Bihar 40,49,183 14-1

Bombay 33,59,305 9-2

Madhya Pradesh 24,77,025 22'6

Madras 6,35,979 1 1

Orissa 29,67,334 25 '4

U. P. 05

West Bengal 11,65,337 6'5

Madhya Bharat 10,60,812 15*4

Mysore 15,310 O'i

Rajasthan 3,16,348 11 '7

Travancore-Cochiu 26,580 1-8

Ajmer 9,816 15'6

Bhopal 59.114 90

Coorg 21,084 11 '6

Manipur 1,94,239 29'8

Tripura 1,92,293 6'4

Viodhya Pradesh 4,18,282 5'9

The following table gives the percent of total population in
each religion since 1 881-19 ji y in India** :

1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951
Hindu 75-09 74-24 72-87 71-65 70*73 70-67 69.46 84'99

Muslims 19-97 20'41 21*88 22'39 23*25 23-49 24-28 9-93
Tribal 2-57 3.26 2*88 3-17 2'97 2*26 2^6 0-47

Christians

0-71

077

0-98

1-21

1-47

1'77

1-91

0*30

Sikh

0-74

068

0-77

1-00

1-06

1-28

1-46

2-74

Jains

049

051

0-47

0-41

0-39

0-37

0-37

i-44

Buddhists

007

009

o-io

o-n

0-12

0.13

0-12

0-06

Parsi

003

003

003

0-03

0-03

0-03

0'03

0-03

Jewish

0-01

001

0-01

001

0-01

0-01

0-01

Others

0'32

11

(Denotes less than '005%)

20 Census of India, Paper No. 4, 1953. Special Groups
1951 Census, p. 15,

21 First Five-Year Plan, 1951, p. 636.

22 K.Davis, Population of India and Pakistan^ 19 5 1^
p. 178.

TRIBES IN INDIA 31

It has been observed that the aboriginal popu-
lation has been on decrease since 1911. It may
be pointed out in this connection that while the
aboriginal population is under ordinary circums-
tances exceedingly prolific, the majority of them
inhabit those parts of the country which are ex-
posed chiefly to the ravages of malaria.

Secondly, there has been a real absorption of
the tribes into Hinduism in the Assam plains and
North Cachhar Hills.

Thirdly, the spread of Christianity among the
tribes in Lushai, Khasi and Jaintia hills as well as
in the Madhya Pradesh and Travancore-Cochin
has also helped in reducing their strength.

Fourthly, through acculturation which is the
process of change due to the contact with other
people and it involves acceptance and adoption
when a tribe comes into close contact with civili-
zation it may accept some of the traits of its neigh-
bours so that their original traits gradually dis-
appear and the tribal dialects are being replaced
by Aryan languages and the tribal beliefs are
giving way to the direct onslaught of the inhabi-
tants of the plains.

It would not be inappropriate to deal here in
brief with the factors which have made the contact
of tribes with their neighbours easy. This contact
may result from the following factors :

i . Existence of the mines and minerals in
tribal areas in various parts of Bihar, Orissa,
West Bengal coal-bearing districts and iron ore
mines encourage immigration of alien people, part

32 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

of which must settle down and live in their new
homes.

2. Emigration of tribal labour to mines and
factories situated far-away and to the distant plan-
tations in Assam and W, Bengal, which have
attracted a considerable amount of contractual
labour, the main cause of such immigration being
land alienation or expropriation of the aboriginal
peasant proprietorship.

3 . The opening up of the tribal areas by a
network of communications, railways and road-
ways has reduced the shyness of the tribal people
with astonishing quickness and many landless
families have settled down along the roads, while
others make their living by catering to alien people
domiciled in their midst.

4. The setting up of the Missionaries in out-
of-way and often inaccessible areas has produced
an impact of culture, and the tribal people have
received all sorts of help from them in their dis-
tress and disease and fight against the Zamindar
or Bania or both and have responded to such help
by adopting Christianity.

5. The administrative officers, personnel of
the Public Health Services, the forest officials
and their agents, contractors, traders, merchants,
touts, litigants, lawyers, the police and thepatwaris
or revenue agents and others whose contact with
the tribal people has been effective enough in pro-
ducing discomforts and disintegration of the
culture indigenous.

3. TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR
CLASSIFICATION

1. Introduction

The total population of India is 356,829,485,
out of which the Scheduled Tribes account for
19,111,49s. 1 Article 366 (25) of the Constitution
of India has defined "Scheduled Tribes" as "such
tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups
within such tribes or tribal communities as are
deemed under article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes
for the purpose of this Constitution/' By the
Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950, issued
by the President in exercise of the power conferred
by Clause (i) of the Articles 342 of the Consti-
tution of India, 212 tribes in 14 States have been
declared to be Scheduled Tribes. 1 These tribes
constitute 5-36 per cent of the total population of
the country, /. e. out of every 1,000 Indians, 54
belong to the tribal community.

2. Classification

It is a bit difficult task to classify the tribes into
different groups. However, the Indian Com-

i Census of lndia % Paper No. 4 (1953) Special Groups
1951 Census ', p. 1 6.

i Ibid. p. 38-41 and 46-47. Of these tribes 29 are
in Assam; 24 in Bombay; 31 in M. P; 40 in Madras; 41 in
Oiissa; 7 in West Bengal; 3 in M. B; 6 in Mysore; x8 in
Tripura; 14 in V. P; 7 in Bhopal and 3 in Manipur.

3

34 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

missioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes recently investigated the possibility of
adopting a classification criterion going beyond
the legal concept cited above. With this aim in
view the different State Governments were asked
to suggest the characteristics which seemed to
them most suitable in distinguishing the so-called
"Aboriginal" groups from the rest of the popula-
tion. The variety of elements suggested shows
the difficulty inherent in such an attempt. For
instance, (/) The Assam Government gives these
characteristic features: (a) descent from Mongoloid
stock, (b) the members of the Tibeto-Burman
linguistic group and (c) the existence of a unit of
social organisation of the village clan type. (/'/')
the Bombay Government: residence in forest
areas; (///) the M. P. Government: tribal origin,
speaking a tribal language and resident in forest
areas; (iv) the Madras Government: primitive
tribal way of life and residence in less easily
accessible hills and in remote or interior forests,
with little or no contact with other population
groups; (v) the Orissa Government: pre-Dravidian
or Mongoloid racial origin; (vf) the West Bengal
Government: residence in jungle and tribal origin;
(vii) the Hyderabad Government: residence in
jungles, animistic religion, the use of local dialect,
forcible marriage, hunting, fishing and gathering
of forest food as the main means of subsistence,
etc., (wit) the Mysore Government : the habitation
in remote hilly tracts in the jungle, (v) the
Travancore Government : habitation in the jungle,
tribal religion and certain racial or cultural charac-

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 35

teristics, (*) the Bhopal Government: habitation
in remote jungle and hill districts, nomadism,
hunting and gathering of forest fruits as the main
means of subsistence and (xf) the Vindhya Pradesh
Government: dark skin, flat noses, preference for
fruits, roots and animal flesh, rather foodgrains,
the use of bark and leaves of trees as clothes on
ceremonial occasions, nomadism, witch-doctoring
and the worship of ghosts and spirits. 8

From the above description it will be evident
that different Governments have given different
characteristics for the people to be labelled as
tribals, although certain features are common to
them all. We may classify them on the basis of
their (/') Territorial distribution; (if) Linguistic
affiliation; (///) Occupation or economy; (iv) Cul-
ture contact, and (v) Physical characteristics.

(i) Territorial Distribution

According to the first classification, they may
be divided into four important groups : (a) the
tribes living in the northern and north-eastern
zone; (b) tribes inhabiting the central zone, (c)
tribes scattered over the extreme corners of south-
western India in the hills and the converging
lines of the Ghats; and (d) small groups in several
parts of the country or even within the political
boundary of the country.

3 L. M. Shrikant, Report of tbt Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for the period ending
jistDcc., 1951. p. 109-11 (195*)

36 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(a) The northern and north-eastern zone
consists of the sub-Himalayan region and the moun-
tain valleys on the Eastern Frontiers of India
which merge imperceptibly with those of Burma
in the south-east. This zone lies approximately
between 3i7' N and 35o' N on its western enct
23 30' N and 28o' N on its eastern end between
7733' E and 97 o f East. The eastern most tribal
concentration is found in Assam, Manipur and
Tripura, where they number 2*1 million. The
tribal areas of eastern Kashmir, East Punjab,
Himachal Pradesh and northern U. P also fall in
tbis zone.

The most important tribes living between
Assam and Tibet may be mentioned the Aka, the
Dafla, the Miri, Gurung, and the Aptanic on the
West of the Subansiri river, and the Gallong, the
Minyong the Pasi, the Padam and the Pangi in
the Dehong valley. The Mishmi tribes live in the
high ranges between the Debong and Lohit rivers,
the Chulikata and Belejiyas on the western and the
Digaree and the Meju on the eastern parts. Farther
east are found the Khamtis and the Singhops and
beyond them, converging on the south are the
different Naga tribes occupying the mountain
valleys on both sides of the Patkois.

The Naga tribes consist of five major groups:
the Rangpan and the Konyak in the northern; the
Rengma and the Sema, and the Angami in the
western; the AoLahota, Phom, Chang, Santam and
the Yimstsunger in the central; the Kacha and the
Kabui in the southern and the Tangakhul and the

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 37

Kalyo-Kengu in the eastern section. South of the
Naga hills running through the States of Manipur,
Tipperah, the Chittagong hill tracts live the
Kukis, the Lushais, the Lakhers, the Chins, the
Khasis and the Garos, many of whom are really
overflows of the tribes from across the Frontiers
or are closely related. In the Sub-Himalayan
region in Sikkim and the northern portions of
Dar j celling, there are a number of rather primitive
tribes of whom the Lepchas are the best known.
In U. P. also a number of tribes such as the
Tharus, Bhoksa, Khasa, Korwa, Bijar, Bhuia,
Majhi, Cheri, Raji, and Kharwar are found.

(b) The central or the middle zone is separated
from the north-eastern zone by the gap between
the Garo hills and Rajmahal hills and consists of
plateaus and mountainous belt between the Indo-
Gangetic plain to the north and roughly the
Krishna river to the South. This zone lie approxi-
mately between 2Oo' N and 25 o' N and 73 o' E
and 9Oo' East. In this zone we have another
massing of tribal peoples in M. P. with extensions
in U. P., M. B. and Hyderabad, Southern Rajas-
than, Northern Bombay, Bihar, Orissa. Northern
Rajasthan, Southern Bombay and Bastar form the
peripheral areas of this zone. The important tribes
inhabiting this zone beginning from the Eastern
Ghats and Orissa hills are the Savara, Gadabi, and
Borido of the Ganjam district; the Juang Kharia,
Khond, Bhumij and the Bhuiya of the Orissa hills.
In the plateau of the Chota Nagpur live the
Mundas, the Santhals, the Oraons, the Hos and

38 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

the Birhors. Further west along the Vindhya
ranges live the Katkaris, Kols and the Bhils, the
latter extending as far as north-west as the Aravalli
hills. The Gonds form the largest group and
occupy what is known as the 'Gondwanaland' and
extend southwards into Hyderabad and the
adjoining States of Kankar and Bastar.

On both sides of the Satpuras and around the
Maikal hills are found similar tribes like the Korku,
the Agaria, the Pardhan and the Baigas. In the
hills of Bastar State live some of the most pictur-
esque of these tribes, vi%. the Murias, the Hill
Murias of the Adbhujhamar hills and the Bison-
horn Marias of the Indravati valley. Majority of
these people show similarity of race and culture.

(c) The third zone consists of that part of the
Southern India which falls south of the river
Krishna (below latitude 16 N) stretching from
Wynaad to Cape Comorin. This zone approximate-
ly lies between 8o' N and zoo' N and 75 o' E
and 85o' East. Hyderabad, Mysore, Coorg,
Travancore-Cochin, Andhra and Madras fall
within this zone. From the fact that they occupy
these marginal areas and also from the records in
the oldest Tamil literature of the Sangam period
they appear to be one of the most ancient and
primitive inhabitants now living in India having
been pushed by the intrusion of more advanced
people into their present habitats, where safety
and shelter were found against increasing pressure.

Beginning from the north-east the Chenchus
occupy the area of the Nallaimallais hills across

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION , 39

the Krishna and into the Hyderabad State. Along
the western Ghats from the Koraga of South
Kanara, the Yeruvas and the Todas living in the
lower slopes of Coorg hills; the Irulas, Paniyans
and Kurumbas of Wynaad, and stretching almost
to Cape Comorin along the ranges of Cochin and
Travancore and sheltered in the isolation of the
forest are found the most primitive of Indian
aboriginal such as Kadars, Kanikkars, Malvadan,
Malakurvan, with many of their original traits still
preserved.

(d) In addition to these three major zones there
is a fourth small and isolated zone consisting of
Andamans and Nicobar Islands. The main tribes
living in this zone are the Jarawa, Onge, North
Sentineless, the Andmanese and the Nicobarese,
though separated from the main body of India's
aboriginal tribes are ethnically connected with
them.

(ii) Linguistic Affiliation

Linguistically these tribes may be divided into
a number of groups based on their affiliation to
the various families of languages :

(a) The Austro-Asiatic linguistic branch under
which come the Kol or Munda speeches of the
Central and Eastern India, Khasi of Assam.
Nicobarese in the Nicobar Islands. San tali
(2,811,578 speakers), found in Bihar, Orissa, West
Bengal and Assam; Mundari (536,338); Ho (599,
876); Kharia (180,000); Bhumij (101,508) Garo
(239,816); Khasi (230,982) and few other which

40 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

belong to Bihar and Assam. The language of
Korku (170,607) is spoken in M. P. and Berar;
while Savana (Saora) (256,259) and Gadaba are
spoken in Orissa. Outside the Kol group, there
is the language of Nicobarese (only 10,000) in the
Nicobar Islands. 4

(b) The Dravidian Linguistic Group is popular
in Central and Southern India. It is spoken by
Gonds Gondi (1,232,886) in M. P., Hyderabad
and Andhra States ; Khondh or Khond (280,561)
in Orissa ; Kui (206,509) ; the Kurukh or Oraon
(644,042) in Bihar and Orissa ; Mai to (71,000) in
Rajmahal hills in Bihar. The other tribes under this
group are : Maler, Polia, Saora, Koya, Paniyan,
Chenchu, Irulas, Kadar, Malser and Malakurwan. 5

(c) The Tibeto- Chinese family includes the
tribal languages of various people belonging to the
Mongoloid element and found along the southern
slopes of the Himalayas, from northern Punjab to
Bhutan and also in northern and eastern Bengal
and in Assam, e.g., the Nagas, the Kuki, the Ab-
hors, the Dafla, the Miris, the Khasi and the
Mikirs.

(iii) Occupational Classification

The tribes of India not only speak different
languages, but also have distinctive economy of
their own. They live in different economic stages
tanging from food gathering and hunting through

4 Census of India, Paper, No, i, 1954 Languages 195 1
Census, p, 8. The figures in the bracket denote the num-
ber of speakers.

5 Ibid, p. 8,

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 41

shifting cultivation to settled plough cultivation, e.g.,
the Birhot, Kharia, Korua and Hill Maraia Mala-
pantaram, Kadar, the Paniyan, etc. The Paliyan de-
pend on food-gathering and hunting for their liveli-
hood. The Baiga, Pauri (hill) Bhuiyan, Jhuang Maria,
Khond, Naga and Kutia Kandh are shifting culti-
vators. The Munda, Bhils, Baiga, Gond, Majhwar,
Kharwar and Ho Santal and Oraon depend pri-
marily on permanent plough cultivation for their
living. The Naga tribes have developed a system
of terraced cultivation with elaborate means of irri-
gation by aqueducts.

Dr. Hutton classified these tribes into three
groups : (i) Primitive tribes collecting forest pro-
duce, (ii) Primitive tribes, pastoral and (iii) tribes
practising agriculture, hunting, fishing and indus-
tries.

The following table shows the economic
status of the tribes : 6

Where
found

U. P.
Bihar

Assam

. Bengal

Shifting or Jhum
Hunting and cultivation,

collecting lumbering,

stage manufacturing

catech u

Raji Karwa, Saberia,

Bhuia, Khaiwar

Kharia, Kadars Korwa, Asur
Khond

Birhors,
Kuki, Konyak
Nagas.

Kuki.

Naga tribes, Ga-
ros Lakhers

Garos, Malpaha*
ria

Settled agricultu-
rists who keep
poultry, rattle, know
weaving, spinning,
pottery and terraced
farming

Tharu, Majhi, Bind,
Bhokasa, Khasa, Kol.

Munda, Ho, Tama-
ria, Oraon, Korwa,

Khasi, Manipuri
Folia, Santhals,

6 D. N. Majumdar, Races and Cultures of India, p. 92.

42 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

M. P. Hill Maia Maria, Dandami, Parja, Bhatra, Baigat

Maria, Gond,

Baiga, Kamar

Madras & Chcnchu, Ku- Khonds, Kurum- Badapa, Kota, Int
Hyderabad rumba Koya, ba, Gonds, Saora, Las, Parja

Paliyan Conta Mudavan
Reddi, Hill Pan-
taram Paniyan,
Yanadi.

Orissa J ua ^8 Saora

Bombay &

Rajasthan Bhih Bhils Bhils and Gond

(iv) Physical Characteristics

Physically the tribes of the north-east frontier
are Mongoloid with light skin colour, straight and
-dark hair and flat nose and prominent cheek bones.
Majority of them are of medium stature with long
heads, scanty hair growth on body and face and
almond-shaped eyes. All these tribes, including
the women, are muscular with great development
of calf-muscles. They are great mountaineers and
carry considerable amount of loads to high alti-
tudes. They are healthy, hard-working and of inde-
pendent spirit and their life is well balanced with
democratic councils and considerable stress on
personal liberty of thought and action. They have
childlike simplicity and are very honest but not
trained for sustained labour and concentration of
mind. ~-

This type is represented by the Nagas, semi-
Nagas, Chakmas, Mughs, and Lepchas.

(b) In the central zone the Negrito strain is
most marked. The tribes very largely conform to
the pattern of what are called the "Austroloid

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 43

characters." Physically they are from short to
medium stature, dark skinned with long head, and

generally possessing curly but not frizzly hairs,
road and flat nose but depressed at the root, fleshy
everted lips. They are strong, muscular and well-
built.

This type is represented by the tribes like the
Chenchus, Kurumbas, the Yeruvas, Malayans,
Munda, Kols, Santhals and the Bhils.

(c) In the southern zone there is an undoubted
Negrito strain, although at present greatly sub-
merged, but still surviving among some of the
more primitive and isolated of these tribes such
as the Kadars of Perambiculam, hills of Cochin,
and the Irulas and Panyans of the Wynaad. Physi-
cally they are of short to medium stature, of deep
chocolate brown skin colour, small head, bulbous
forehead, smooth brow- ridges and feeble chins.
The face is short and protruding and the nose flat
and broad and the lips are thick and everted, the
head shape is long, hair fine and of wooly nature
and the body well developed.

At the present time they are greatly intermixed
and it is only in the extreme interior that more
archaic types are to be found,
(iv) Classification according to culture-contact

There are four main cultural divisions among
the aboriginals. 7 "The first two classes consist of
the comparatively small block of real primitives

7 V. Elwin, The Aboriginals (O. U, P. Pamphlet cm
Indian Affairs No. 14), p, 8-12.

44 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

living in the hills. Their religion is characteristic
and alive ; their tribal organisation is unimpaired ;
their artistic and choreographic traditions are
unbroken; their mythology still vitalizes the healthy
organism of tribal life. Geographical conditions
have largely protected them from the debasing
contacts of the plains".

The wilder aboriginals have to be sub-divided
into two sections : (a) the first class in the most
primitive and simple stage of all is comprised
of Hill Marias of Bastar State, the Juangs of
Keonjhar and Pal-Labara, the Gadabas and Bondos
of Orissa, the Baigas of I 3 andaria and Kawaedha,
many of smaller communities and more isolated
villages even of comparatively sophisticated tribes.
This group has the following characteristics :
(i) Its members live a largely communal life like
those of the Hill Marias, Hill Baigas and the
Juangs (ii) Economically they share one another ;
(iii) Their life still centres round a peculiar form
of agriculture (Jhum) and (iv) They are shy of
strangers but among themselves honest, simple
and innocent. Crime is rare and women virtuous.

(b) The second class of aboriginals live in coun-
try equally remote and they are equally attached to
their solitude and to their ancient traditions but
they have begun to change in many ways. The
important tribes of their class are Bison-horn
Marias or the Bhomia and Binjhwar and Baigas.
Their chief characteristics are : (i) Their village
life has become individualistic, (ii) They no longer
share things with one another, (iii) Axe-cultivation

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 45

is more a habit rather than a part of their life ; (iv)
They are more accustomed to outside life and are
generally less simple and honest than the above class.

(c) The third class of aboriginals is the most
numerous. It consists of all those who under the
influence of external contact have begun to lose
their stronghold on tribal culture, religion and
social organisation.

(d) The fourth class, which consists of the old
aristocracy of the country represented today by the
great Bhil, Naga chieftains, the Gond Rajas, a few
Bin jh war and Bhiuya landlords, Korku noblemen,
wealthy Santhal and Utaon leaders and some highly
cultured Mundas. These retain the old tribal
name and their clan and totem rules and observe
elements of tribal religion though they generally
adopt the full Hindu faith and live in modern style.

Process of Transformation of Tribal Cultures

The process through which the tribal cultures
are usually transformed or modified may be either :
(i) simple adoption, which means the acquisition
of technical skill, adoption of tools, implements,
ideas, customs and rites by one social group from
another, e.g. the Warli of Thana district is yet
simple and unostentatious, put on a loin cloth
without anything on his head but his colleague in
the south being in much contact with the Kolis
puts on a shirt, dhoti and turban after the latter's
fashion. Similar taking over of the elements of
material culture from neighbouring groups is found
in all tribes today especially the Bhils, the Gonds
and the Santhals, etc.

46 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(ii) Acculturation is the process of change due
to contacts with other people. It involves accep-
tance and adoption. A tribe in contact with
civilization may accept some of the traits of their
neighbours such as the employment of Hindu
priest in indigenous ceremonies and festivals
among some of the tribes in Bihar is an example
of simple acceptance. Similarly Munda tribes
have accepted some of the cultural traits from
their neighbours, while Raj ban sis have shown an
adaptation to Hindu culture. The Lambadis of
the Deccan have taken to agriculture, they have
adopted the dress of their neighbours and tribe is
divided into sections based on occupations. Simi-
lar adaptation is found among certain sections
of the Gonds, the Raj Gonds and the Navgharia
Gonds and the Bhils.

(iii) Assimilation, /". e. by a gradual drift to
Hinduism. When certain members of a primitive
tribe move down into the plains they tend to
become assimilated in contrast to other members
who remain behind. The evidence of assimilation
in many cases is apparent. Certain Santhals of
Bengal give distinctly Hindu names to their child-
ren, practise child-marriage before the age of 7,
revere the Tulsi plant, abstain from beef, cleanse
"their living quarters with cowdung, decline food
cooked by Muslims, cremate their dead and place
the vermillion mark and the iron bangle upon
their wives." 8

8 Census of India, Vol. V (Bengal and Sikkim), Pt.
1931 p. 383.

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 47

Effects of Culture Contacts

The effects of such contacts have been very far-
reaching on the life of the aboriginals. Contacts
with civilisation have undermined social solidarity,
invaded tribal security, introduced discomforts,
diseases and vices. The results may be detailed
as below :

(i) The rapid opening up of the means of com-
munications has resulted more in conflict than in
useful contact not necessarily a conflict of arms but
of culture and material interest. Says Dr. Hutton,
"Attempts to develop minerals, forests or land for
intensive cultivation can only be made at the expense
of the tribes whose isolation is thus invaded :
tribal customs which regulate the ownership, usu-
fruct or transfer of land are normally superseded
by a Code in the application of which the tribe is
deprived of its property, generally in the name of
law, either by alienation to foreigners or by trans-
ferring the trusteeship of a tribal chief into absolute
ownership of a kind foreign to the customs of a
tribe. The complicated system of administration
of justice has tended to impair the natural truthful-
ness and honesty of the people and social solidarity
of the tribes has weakened the authority of the
social heads and the respect they formerly com-
manded." In spite of the best intentions a lot of
injustice is done to the aboriginals by the Judges
and Magistrates and the police officers of all grades
owing to their ignorance of customs and mensality
of the aboriginal tribes they have to deal with.

4$ TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(ii) The introduction of the outstill system in
tribal area in mines and industrial centres, where
they frequent for employment, has led to an increase
in drunkenness and immorality. "The temptation
of distilary liquor", wrote Shri S. C. Roy, "intro-
duced by the Government in some aboriginal areas
is another evil that is working havoc, economi-
cally, morally and physically/'

(iii) One of the most important effects of con-
tacts has been the spread of diseases in tribal
areas. Mills has shown, while writing about the
effects on some primitive tribes of Assam of con-
tact with civilization, "That improved communica-
tions while they have immensely facilitated internal
trade, have undoubtedly spread disease; not only
have specific diseases such as venereal diseases and
T. B. been introduced but epidemics spread more
quickly. The opening of the road to Manipur has
led to an increase in prostitution.'' Emigration
of labour from tribal areas to plantations and
factories where conditions are not favourable to
settlement has been the main source for the spread
of epidemic diseases. The lure of free life unham-
pered by social control pulls women to plantations
and factories where they are tempted to a corrupt
life and the large incidence of V. D. like syphilis
and diabetes, gonnorohea, etc., among the labou-
rers is directly traceable to such indiscriminate
mixing of the sexes. Missionaries and the philan-
throphic agencies have caused T. B., and other
contact diseases to spread in tribal areas through
indiscretion, as for example, doling out second

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION 49

hand clothes and apparels collected from the dead
or diseased population, which are a foci of in-
fection.

(iv) Urban contacts have everywhere disorga-
nised primitive social life. The village has ceased
to be living community; it is now an aggregate of
isolated units. Old myths are being forgotten and
the old gods neglected. Many of the traditional
dances which used to provide recreation to the
youths of both sexes, translate joys and sorrows
are being abandoned and village politics, rivalry
and social disputes are replacing their old-time
recreation. The effects of this transfer of interests
have already been evident in the high incidence
of imported diseases, poor physique, inferiority
complex and a bitter Antagonism against advanced
groups in the neighbourhood.

(v) A large number of tribes have been living
on hunting and collection of jungle products
supplemented by Jhum cultivation. The effects of
Jhum cultivation have led to strict rules regarding
denudation of forests and today many of the tribes
(who lived by shifting cultivation) have come
down to the plains though most have not suc-
ceeded in adapting themselves to other kinds of
agriculture found in the plains. This is mostly
due to tribal inertia, shyness of the aborigines,
apathy pf administration and as Dr. Hutton says,
< c may be due to ignorance of appropriate magico-
religious ceremonial necessary for other types of
farming."

4

JO TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(vi) Many tribes have failed to maintain their
tribal structures and have either been assimilated
with more vital stock or have withdrawn them-
selves from contacts as a defensive measure. The
Andamanese, Korwas, Todas and Chenchus are
on evil days and are preparing themselves for exit.
Some other tribes have left their tribal moorings
and have settled in the neighbourhood of higher
cultural groups whom they serve. Today they
have developed some sort of interdependence.
The Gond tribe of M. P. and Bhils of southern-
eastern Rajasthan may be taken as an example.

(vii) The nomadic tribes who secured their
livelihood by catering to the periodical require-
ments of settled communities as the Marwaris
or the Lakhota supplying agricultural implements
to the latter or repairing their indigenous tools
and utensils, the Nats supplying crude nostrums
for the restoration of the lost manhood, the Kan-
jars providing amusements, acrobatics and dances
for the village communities, find it difficult to
continue their customary life and have enlisted
themselves into the ranks of criminal tribes whose
attention to the rural communities is a perpetual
concern of the administration.

(viii) Lastly, the itinerant seller of goods and
trinkets, the moneylender, the licensee of excise
shops, collectors of lac, honey and other forest
produce are mostly aliens in culture and language.
They have settled in tribal areas and have taken
advantage of the gradual drift of tribal society
from a moneyless economy to one in which ex-
change depends on the circulation of money. The

TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CLASSIFICATION Ji

implications of money economy are better under-
stood by them and thus they have succeeded in
solidly entrenching themselves in tribal areas and
today they are a source of great discomfort to the
tribal people. In many areas the land has passed
from the aborigines to the moneylenders and
sahukars who make the very people work for
them.

4. TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR ROLE IN
NATIONAL ECONOMY

What part do the tribal people play in the
economy of a country is hard to estimate, because
the grading of the tribes on the basis of their
economic life and occupations and in accordance
with any approved schemes of classification is
indeed difficult as most of the tribes possess
either marginal culture or follow more than one
occupation. The tribal stage does not provide for
any specialisation of functions and as such a variety
of occupations are followed by a tribe. A tribe
uses all kinds of occupations to eke out its sub-
sistence and combines hunting with honey gather-
ing, lumbering with chase, shifting cultivation
with domestication of animals. 1

Shri Thurnwald has listed the following types
of economic life, which incidentally are also met
with in tribal India 2 :

i. Homogeneous communities of men as
hunters and trappers, and women as collectors.
The Chenchus, the Kadars, the Kharia, the Korwa,
the Birhors and the Kurumbas are some of the
Indian tribes belonging to this group.

J P. G. Menon, Census of India, 1931, Vol. I., Pt. III.
B., p. 216.

1 R. Thurnwald, Economics in Primitive Communities^ 193 2.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 5 3

2. Homogeneous communities of hunters,
trappers and agriculturists. The Baigas, the
Birhors, the Kamar belong to this class.

3. Grade Society of hunters, trappers, agricul-
turists and artisans. Most of our tribes belong
to this category but the most important examples
are the Chero and the Agaria.

4. The Herdsmen. Todas and some sections
of Bhils may be included under this category.

5. Homogeneous hunters and herdsmen. This
category is not represented by Indian tribes. The
Todas do not hunt, nor do they catch fish or birds.

6. Ethnically stratified cattle-breeders and
traders. The Bhotiyas of the sub-Himalayan re-
gion of U. P. breed yak and jibus and are traders
also.

7. Socially graded herdsmen with hunting,
agricultural and artisan population.

Both Forde and Herskovits agree as to a five-
fold division of economies among the tribes: (i)
collectional, (ii) hunting, (iii) fishing, (iv) cultiva-
tion and (v) stock-raising, and a people need not
abandon one economy to adopt another.

Nieboer divides economic life into: (i) gleaners*
(ii) hunters, (iii) fishers, (iv) agricultural nomads
or hunter-agriculturists, (v) settled agriculturists
of a lower grade who also hunt or tend cattle,
and (vi) superior farmers who have implements
and (vii) nomad shepherds.

54 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The I. L. O. Committee on Living and Work-
ing Conditions of Aboriginal Populations in In-
dependent Countries classifies the indigenous
populations according to their occupations in five
groups thus 3 :

(i) Nomadic or semi-nomadic forest-dwelling
tribes which live by hunting, fishing and food-
gathering and sometimes also by primitive forms
of agriculture on land cleared by burning.

(ii) Semi-nomadic tribes living in geographi-
cally and economically marginal areas, engaged in
subsistence agriculture or grazing or both and in
gathering vegetable raw materials for handicrafts.

(iii) Settled independent farmers or stock raisers,
working on an individual or collective basis.

(iv) Tenant labourers, bound to the estates by
a traditional semi-feudal system entailing a number
of personal obligations to the land-owners.

(v) Wage-earners, who constitute the main
source of labour on plantations, cattle ranches,
mining, forestry, etc.
i. Agriculture

Broadly speaking, the tribes in north-eastern
India are settled agriculturists living on terraced
fields, while shifting cultivation is the prevalent
form of food production in the central zone. In
the southern zone, economic life in based mainly
on the collection of forest produce. Shifting
cultivation is, however, a common feature in all

3 1. L. O : Living and Working Conditions of Aboriginal
Populations in Independent Countries.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 5 5

zones. Hunting, fishing and minor cottage indus-
tries such as basket making, etc., are the most
important subsidiary occupations.

In the most hilly tracts the agricultural produce
consists generally of coarse grains, in other areas
rice, wheat and jo war are produced. Cultivation
by means of cutting down a patch of forest and
then planting seeds in the burnt earth and ashes
with the help of a digging stick is perhaps capable
of supporting about 20 to 30 people per sq. mile.
Predatory form of axe-cultivation is quite popular
among many of the Mongolian tribes living near
the north-eastern border of India. In central belt
also a few tribes like the Bhuiya, the Juang or the
Savara practise this type of cultivation. As the
methods of agriculture followed by the tribal people
are primitive and crude, there is generally no pro-
duction surplus. An important subsidiary occu-
pation for the aborigines is employment by the
forest departments and their contractors.

The following table shows occupational distri-
bution of Scheduled Tribes according to 1951
census 4 :

Occupation Males Females Total Per cent
Agricultural

Owners 6,276,023 6,266,991 12,543,014

Tenants 957,046 916,775 1,873,821

Labourers 1,402,883 1,400,283 2,803,171

Absentee landlords 29,686 34,568 64,254

Total 8,665,638 8,618,622 17,284,260 90

4 Census of India, Paper. No. 4 (1953) Special Groups
1951 Census, pp. 16-21.

j6 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

NCR- Agricultural

Production other than
cultivation 411,288 353,696 764,984

Commerce 59,467 64,174 123.641

Transport 33,966 28,588 62,554

Other services and mis-
cellaneous 442,474 428,769 871,243

Total 947,195 875,227 1,822,422 10

Total Population of Sche-
duled Tribes 9,617,905 9,498,593 19,116,498 5

From this table it will be seen that 90 per cent
of the total population of the tribal people are
dependent on agriculture, as against 70 per cent
among the general population. The following
table gives the number of tribal people per 1,000
people engaged in different occupations, as also
among the general population 5 :

Number per 7,000 persons

General Population Tribal People

Agricultural Classes 1000 70

Non-Agricultural Classes 1000 17

Cultivators of land 1000 75

Tenants 1000 59

Cultivating Labourers 1000 63

Absentee Landlords 1000 12

Production other than cultivstion 1000 20

Commerce 1000 6

Transport 1000 1 1

Other services and miscellaneous 1000 20

Wherever the virgin forest abound Jhum or
shifting cultivation has been in vogue and it is
known by different names in different parts of

Ibid., p. 3.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 57

the country. In northern India it is called Daya,
in southern India it is known as Poduar, Bodaga,
in the Ganjam Agency Tracts, Deppa in Bastar
State, ]hum in Assam, Khil in the Himalayas, Kumari
in Western Ghats, and Walra in S. E. Rajasthan. 6
The Bhuiyas distinguish two forms of it : dahi and
'Koman ; the Maria call it Penda y and Baiga call it
Bewar. The usual method is to fell trees, burn
them and to sow in the ashes either broadcast or
by digging holes on the ground and putting all
sorts of seeds together. All these wasteful ways
of subsistence are being followed on a much larger
scale in the Sirohi, Udaipur and Dungarpur dis-
tricts of Rajasthan as the forest tribes of Bhils,
Meenas, Gerasias find it more and more difficult
to live by robbery and being pent up within their
own wilds are compelled to draw their food from
the soil. 7 While agriculture is thus clearly the
main occupation, the more advanced tribes are
giving evidence of a growing diversification, tribal
economy depending in each case on the raw
materials available and the manpower demand in
the region.

The Gonds of M. P. are gradually abandoning
agriculture and taking up employment in charcoal
burning, forestry, the transport of firewood,
gathering of forest fruits and the manufacture of
bamboo articles. The Oraons are coming down in-
to the plains to engage in primitive agriculture.
The Bhils of Bombay and Udaipur Division prefer

Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. III., p. 25.
7 Rajputana Gazetteer \ Vol. I, p. 23.

} 8 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

settled agriculture, which they have practised for
last 1 50 years, even when they have to work the
land as wage-earners. In Hyderabad the same
tribe, though it lives by gathering forest produce,
fishing and hunting, prefers some settled occupa-
tions and when the Bhils can obtain land they show
great aptitude for agriculture. Lacking land and
drought animals they work as seasonal or day
labourers. 8

The Santhals are almost all agriculturists. In
the same group falls the Majhwars, Kharwars
and the Korwas of U. P. The first two have
abandoned their wild habits and have learned the
rudiments of crude agriculture from their neigh-
bours. 9

Among the Kolams in M, P. the practice of
Podu cultivation is disappearing. Only those
near the hills practise it. With increased facilities
of improved methods of agriculture, the Kolam
is giving up readily the method of Podu. 10

In Assam, agriculture is the general practice
among the eastern tribes. The cultivation of
fruits, coffee and tea has been introduced and taken
up with avidity. 11

8 For further details, see various articles in Tribes of
India, Vol. I and II published by Adin.jati Sevak Sangb,
Delhi.

* D. N. Majumdar, Fortunes of Primitive Tribes.

10 P. S. Rao, Among the Gonds of Adilabad > 1949,
p. 64.

11 Census of lndia % 1931, Vol. I, Ft. III. p. 149.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 59

The main occupation of the Tharus and
Bhoksas in Bengal, U. P., West Bihar and Orissa
is agriculture, supplemented by occasional hunting
and fishing. The Bhotiyas furnish a transition
between primarily agricultural and primarily pas-
toral people. 12 The Todas are purely a pastoral
race remaining in India.

2. Hunting, Fishing and Gathering

About half a century ago only a little less than
50 percent of the hill tribes of southern India
-depended to a great extent on food gathering
and the collection of food gathering for sale or
barter in the plains. At present such hill tribes as
still subsist on food gathering without any agricul-
tural production of their own are not numerically
strong. Dependent hunters, who do not practise
agriculture but live on the outskirts of villages
and come into the markets to sell jungle pro-
duce include the Yanadi, Chenchu, Korumba, the
smaller tribes of western Madras, Hyderabad and
Travancore-Cochin, and the Katodi of Baroda.
However, in all the large tribes there are sections
which live almost entirely on jungle produce before
the autumn crop is harvested. 13

In Travancore the Pantarams are a nomadic
hunting tribe but there is an understanding among
the various groups that they shall not roam over
each other's domain in quest of food. 14

13 S. D. Pant, Social Economy of the Himalayas, p. 43-44.
W. H. Gilbert, Peoples of India, p. 75.
* Census of India, 1931, Vol. I, Pt, III. B., p.

60 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The Bagatas of Madras are principally cultiva-
tors but about 2 5 % of them live by coolie work
and the collection and sale of minor forest pro-
duce such as honey, soapnut, myrobolan, tama-
rind, adda leaves, etc. 15

The Bhils of Bombay, Rajas than and M. B
live not only by primitive agriculture, but also
depend on hunting and pastoral pursuits.

The other means of earning bread are wood and
fodder cutting and selling, charcoal burning,,
gathering of wild fruits, honey, gum, wax and
service in military service. 16

3. Handicrafts

A number of primitive tribes in various regions
engage in basket making, spinning and weaving*
In Assam, the most widely practised craft is the
manufacture of cloth from cotton dyed with indi-
genous vegetables. The people, Mombas and Sher-
dukpen, north of the Brahamputra make fine bowls,
cleanly varnished and ornamented with delicate
silver work.

In M. P. the Maria Gonds are mainly occupied
in distilling spirits from the products of the forests.
The Sawara, the Konds, and the Gonds also take
to cow-herding, metal working, weaving, cane
working and pottery. The Korwas in some regions
smelt iron and forge their own weapons and imple-

16 A. Aiyappan, Report on the Socio- 'Economic Conditions
of tht Aboriginal Tribes of Province of Madras, p, 72.

lf Indian Geographical journal, Vol. XXX. No. *
(1946), p. 73-

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 6 1

tnents. The Aghatias of M. P. are traditional
smelters of iron and forge a variety of tools and
implements of daily use.

The Ghasis make gut from the fibrous issue of
the animals. The Tharus in addition to farming
make furniture and household utensils, baskets,
musical instruments, weapons, ropes and mats.
Baskets and mats are manufactured by the women
from bamboo and reed for sale in the weekly
markets and fairs. 17

The Irulas of Madras also make bamboo mats
and baskets, as well as ploughs and wheels. 1 8

The Bhotiyas have developed a special aptitude
for spinning and weaving wool into beautiful and
durable fabrics. The women have a sound know-
ledge of the treatment, grading and dyeing of the
wools. 1

4. Mining

Some of the aboriginal tribes, living ; n the
neighbourhood of the main collieries specially in
Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal work in the
coal-mines. In M. P. also the bulk of the coal-
mining labour belong to such tribes as Gonds,
Mawasipuds and Mahars. Some of the aboriginal
groups show special aptitude and skill in particular
operations. The Santhals are good pick miners and

17 D. N. Majumdar, The Fortunes of the Primitive Tribes,
p. 83-84.

18 A. Aiyappan, Op. Cit., p. 140.

19 S. D. Pant, Op. 9 Cit., p. 61-64.

62 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

coal-cutters. 20 Almost all the unskilled labour
force in the mines and quarries of the Tata Iron
and Steel Company (about 17,000) is aboriginal,
In the Manganese mines too about 50 percent
of the labour employed is still aboriginal. 21 In
the iron-ore industry also the labour force employ-
ed by the contractors consists of largely Santhals
andKols. In Bihar mica industry some 250,000
aboriginals find employment. Before the war 70
per cent of the workers in these mines were San-
thals, this proportion has now dropped down to
25 per cent mainly on account of migration to
tea plantations of Assam. 22

5. Plantations

Over half a million adult workers and the same
number of children are employed in the plantation
estates of Assam. About 50 per cent of this num-
ber is aboriginal the Gonds, Konds, and Santhals
and much of it comes from other States of southern
and central India, by recruitment under the Tea
Districts Emmigrant Labour Act (XXII of
193 2). 23 During 1949-50 over 25,000 persons
were recruited outside Assam over 10,000 from

* S. R. Deshpande, Report on an "Enquiry into Conditions
of Labour in Coal Mining in India, 1946, p. 21.

21 Rege, Labour Investigation Committees Main Report
1946, p. 75.

M C. M. Rajgarhia, Mining^ Processing and Uses of Indian
Mica, 1951-

* 3 For methods of recruitment and measures taken to
protect the forest workers and better their conditions, Rege,
Op. Cit.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 65

Bihar, 9,670 from Orissa and over 4,500 fronr

M. P.24

6. Forestry

Aboriginals are also employed in collecting
forest produce as well as in other works in the
forests either for the government department
directly or for contractors. The contractors obtain
from the Government the right to collect forest
produce fruits, bark, dyes, myrobolans, leaves for
bidi-making, lac, gum, resin, wax, and fodder of a
demarcated area of the forest, or to cut timber for
themselves or as agents of the government. They
may also be engaged in the manufacture of wood,
charcoal, and catechu as in the south-eastern Rajas-
than in the districts of Dungarpur, Banswara and
Udaipur.

7. Serf- Labour 25

Aboriginals are also forced to perform compul-

24 Rege, Op. Cit.

15 For interesting account of Serf- Labour in India see,,
S. C. Dubey : The Kamar, 1951 ; C. B. Mamoria : Agri-
cultural Proletariat in India, Modern Review, Oct/Nov.,
1952 ; Dinkar Desai : Agrarian Serfdom in India, in Indian
Sociologists, 1942 ; D. N. Majumdar : Experiment in Tribal
Life in Indian Journal of Social Work, 1950 ; K. G. Sivas-
wamy, Serf Labour Among the Aboriginals, in the Indian
Journal of Social Work\ and his Forced Labour in Agri
culture, in Asian Labour Quarterly, 1949 ; A, M. Lorenzo ;
Agricultural Labour Conditions in Northern India, 1950 ;
S. D. Patel ; Agricultural Labour in Modern India and
Pakistan, 1952 ; and Agrarian Reforms Committee Report,
1952. Agricultural Labour Enquiry Committee Report Vol I,

64 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

sory labour 26 for local authorities, landlords or
contractors, as would be clear from the Report of
the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Sche-
duled Tribes. "In spite of the vigorous efforts of the
government forced labour is still in existence and
it is mostly the Scheduled Castes and also the
Scheduled Tribes who are suffering on account of
this unlawful practice." 37 According to the same
authority in spite of the constitutional prohibition
of forced labour in general, the State is empowered
to impose compulsory service for public pur-
poses.

The tenants are compelled to do some type of
agricultural labour in landlord's fields for a num-
ber of days either without wages or for some very
meagre wages. Sometimes his family members
are also made to work for the landlord. Land-
lords sometimes advance loans to their tenants,
grant them house-sites and thus bind them to

2t The Indian Labour Year Bock 9 1950, defines forced
labour as : "work or service, whether with or without
payment which is expected from a person against his will
either by the government for public purposes under legal
provisions or by landlords or creditors, or by other private
individuals,"

In the first category are included certain commercial
services rendered by aborigines for sanitation or the upkeep
of public property. The second category includes work or
service exacted by Zamindars, malguzars, and other non-
cultivating land-owners or proprietors from their tenants.
Vide, p. z68.

17 L. M. Shrikant, Report of the Commissioner for Schc*
duled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, 1951,?. 26.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 65

tender service for ever. a 8 This system for forced
labour is prevalent not only in Madras in various
districts but also in Bombay, Hyderabad and M. P.
In Bombay all jungle tract tenants are liable to be
called upon to work for their landlords. This
forced labour is demanded for as many days as

are necessary for the landlords* requirements

The maximum remuneration is i anna per day.
More often rice is given, barley sufficient for one
man for one meal. If the landlord is also a forest
contractor he will use his tenants' labour by veth
for working his coupes. 9

The system of debt-bondage had reduced the
aborigines to a state of servitude in which they
work for third parties for a bare subsistence. In
Hyderabad, the aborigines have been forced to
work 10 days in every year in teak-plantations and
to bring with them their own ploughs and bul-
locks, and they are not paid for this work. 3

In M. P. also in localities vestiges of forced
labour are still encountered. The workers supply

18 This practice exists in many parts of rural India and
is known under different names such as the Harwahi system
in U. P., and certain parts of Bihar and M. P-, Kamiauti in
other parts of Bihar ; Gothi in Orissa and certain parts of
Madras ; Veth in some parts of Madras ; Hali in Gujarat ;
Panniyal in Tamiland, Gassigully in Andrfra ; Bhagia in
Hyderabad ; Jeetham in Karnatak ; Barsalia and Shalkari
in M. P. ; Haliyas and Choras in Kumaon; Chakarin Oriss^
Dublas and Kolis in Bombay (see my Agricultural
Problems of India, 1953, p. 169.)

19 Quoted by K. G. Siwaswamy in Serf -Labour Among
the Aboriginals, in Indian Journal of Social Work, p. 317.

80 C. F. Haimendarf, Tribal Hyderabad, 1945.

5

66 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

in interior villages free labour, services and articles
in demand by landholders. Straws for cattle, and
storing grains, vegetables for festivals and fruits,
timber, fuel, free bullock cart service for Dewali
and other festivals are common articles and services
supplied to the landholders by labourers. 31 If
they take loans it is often granted at a very high
rate of interest from 25 to 50 per cent. The small
loan in a year accumulates like a snowball which,
being Prepayable, ties the tenant to the money-
lender. Sometimes the servant is transferred to
another landlord who repays the loan to the pre-
vious landholders. 32 Forest contractors illegally
collect fees from the aborigines for use of fruits
and flowers of forest trees ; when they combine
shop -keeping the aboriginal slaves supply valuable
produce to contractors in exchange for trinkets...
There are terrible sanctions, fear of which makes
the aboriginals render forced service such as carry-
ing loads free or at nominal prices. 33 Tn Bihar the
Kanias are bound servants of their masters ; in
return for a loan received they bind them to per-
form whatever menial services are required of
them in lieu of the interest due on the loan. In
Santhal Parganas and Singhbhum, aboriginals are
asked to maintain roads and buildings by their
labour and released from the obligations of paying
local taxes. 34

31 K. G. Siwaswamy, Forced Labour in Agriculture, in
Asian Labour Quarterly 1949, pp. 45-46.

88 Ibid., p. 50.

M Ibid., P . 47 .

34 A. V. Thakkar, The Problems of Aboriginals in India,

pp. 11-12.

THEIR ROLE IN NATIONAL ECONOMY 6j

Even the local government officials in various
parts of the country were in habits, until recently,
of exacting services and compulsory labour from
tribes under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1934.
"Low paid officials generally abuse their powers
and take advantage of these restrictions to exact
forced labour from numberless victims/' 35

86 V. Raghaviah, The Problem of Criminal Tribes, 1949,
pp. 7-8,

4 . TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF
LIVING

As a rule, the living standard of the aboriginal
population is extremely low. In many parts they
stagnate in conditions of economic destitution and
pronounced cultural and technical backwardness,
which severely limit their production and consump-
tion capacity. This is due to the primitive condi-
tions in which they are obliged to earn their living,
to the lack of educational stimuli and opportuni-
ties and to the almost complete absence, in some
parts, of welfare services and measures for social
and labour protection.

In this note we shall be dealing with the pro-
blems like the dietaries, the housing conditions,
health, and literacy, etc.

i. Dietaries

Studies undertaken in India and other parts of
the world reveal several important facts about the
dietary habits of the aboriginal peoples, but the
actual intake of calories, proteins, minerals and
vitamins by them is not known. Nevertheless the
data disclosed provide valuable information
regarding the wide variations in diets of the primi-
tive peoples.

Of all the primitive tribes of the world, the
Eskimos are prevailingly carnivorous, living mainly
on the marine animals like the seal, polar bear,
whale, walrus, Arctic hare and eggs of Arctic birds.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 69

Their diet is not complete and lacks starchy food.
But the Eskimos are strong, vigorous and have
unlimited energy. The Ainus of Japanese island,
Yezo, are also carnivorous. They are hunters and
eat the flesh of fox, wolf, horse, the fowl and some
varieties of fishes in abundance. They also depend
on a few vegetables, herbs and edible roots. While
the Hunzas of the Upper valleys of the Karakoram
live entirely on fruits and agricultural produce
and yet possess better endurance and superior
physical strength. Their diet is rich and nutritive
consisting of wheat, barley, milk, ghee, butter-
milk, pulses, millets, beans, potatoes, green vegeta-
bles and fruits like apricots, mulberries, etc. Occa-
sionally they take meat and drink home-made wine
of good grapes. In the words of Sir Robert Mc-
Carrison, "These people are unsurpassed by the
Indian race in perfection of physique, they are
long-lived, vigorous in youth and age, capable of
great endurance and enjoy a remarkable freedom
from disease in general. Their diets are unsophis-
ticated foods of nature and the healthiest diets of
mankind." 1 The Bakitara tribe living in Banyoro,
north-west of Victoria Nyaza and the Todas of
Nilgiris are prevailingly lactovegetarians.

At this stage it may be pointed out that there
appears to be no uniformity in the type of food
taken by the different tribes but there seems to be
some relation in the type of food consumed by

1 Quoted by P. N. Sengupta, The Dietaries of the Primi-
tive Tribes of India, in March of India, Vol. VI. No. 2.,
1953, p. 60.

70 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

them and the climatic conditions of their environ-
ments. Herbivorous tribes appear to be the most
numerous, the carnivorous and the omnivorous
coming next and the lactivorous last. 2 But in the
absence of any systematic investigations and the
availability of complete data, it is possible to
know only the variations in the actual consump-
tion of food groups and not the actual intake of
calories, proteins, minerals like calcium, phos-
phorus and iron.

Like the diets of the primitive tribes in other
parts of the world, the diet of the aborigines in
India varies according to the stage of their deve-
lopment and the areas they inhabit. Some of the
tribes that rank as the most primitive live on forest
products such as tubers, fruits and roots and such
fish and animals as they can catch. In general
these tribes are omnivorous and there are few
limits to what they will accept as food. Others at
a higher level of development eat beef and venison
and produce their food by more or less permanent
cultivation or jhum cultivation. 3

The Anthropological Department of the
Government of India has for some time past un-
dertaken extensive systematic investigations on the
dietaries, nutrition and adequacy of food, the
general cause of various ailments, the birth and

1 F. JN. bcngupta, Dietaries of the Primitive Tribes,
in The Adiavisis> 1955, p- 9*

3 A. Aiyappan, Report on the Socio- Economic Conditions
of the Aboriginal Tribes in the Province of Madras, 1948. P<
63-69.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 7 1

death rates, the expectation of life, the rate of
growth among children, basal metabolism, etc.,
among the primitive tribes of India, first in the
Abor hills on the N. E. Frontier of India and
then in southern India in Travancore hills. As a
result of these surveys much useful information is
now available about the dietaries of these people
and their effects on the constitution of the tribes.

Starting from south India we find that the
staple food of the Paliyan consists of roots (the
wild yam), honey and flesh of animals and birds.
They also eat cumbu and cholum. They do not
eat beef. They obtain game by means of traps. 4

The food of the Chenchu consists briefly of
roots (gaddalu) and berries (pandulu) herbs and
fungi are also eaten; tamarind fruits are eaten
mixed with ashes obtained by burning the bark of
the same tree; mahua flower is eaten boiled. No
salt is added to the food. They eat animal flesh
when available, the skin is also eaten after the hair
has been singed and the intestines after cleaning. 5

The Kadar like "all sorts of game and fish, but
the bison and the bear are two animals which no
Kadar will touch, living or dead. They are very
fond of honey. " 6

Kodo, Kutki, Pej (gruel) and vegetables and
tender leaves of trees, particularly * pipal ' and

4 R. Faulkes, A Note on the Paliyans of the Madura
District in Census of India, 1951, Vol. I, Pt. III. B, p. 196.

5 G. A. Khan, The Chenchu* in IbtJ., p* 210.

6 K. G, Mcnon, The Kadar of Cochin, in Census of India,
Op. Cit., p. 213.

72 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

toots form the diet of Gonds. They would not
spare any animal for the sake of flesh, even snakes
and crocodiles would be their favourite dish.
They love liquor brewnfrom mahua flowers. 7

Murias also take rice at night and Pej prepared
of broken rice pieces or millets usually in the day
time. They are non-vegetarians but not beef-
eaters. 8

The Todas of the Nilgiris take mainly milk,
ghee, buttermilk, curd, some cereal grains, sugar,
herbs and fruits. In the olden times they lived
only on herbs, fruits, honey and milk products. 9

Rice and nagali are the staple food of the
Warlis. They eat leafy vegetables and fish, if
available. They also eat dry fish, fowls and flesh
of such wild animals like boar, hare and deer.
When they do not get normal food they eat bitter
kands (big round roots grown below the soil) from
the jungle, after boiling them as far as over
12 hours. 10

The Katkaris of Bombay province eat rice>
nagali, river fish, field crabs and rats. Occasionally
they eat fish.

7 K. A. Gafoor, Tribal Welfare in Hyderabad, 1952,
p. 1 6.

8 S. R. Dass, Bhatras and Murias, in Tribes of India ;
Pt. I., 1950, p. 50.

P. N. Sengupta, Op Cit. 9 p. 90.
10 K. J. Save, Warlis and Katkaris, IbiJ., Pt. I., p. 165-67.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 73.

The food taken by the Bhils is very coarse and
poor but nutritious. It consists chiefly of maize,
kuri, kodra, mal. 11 They also take meat of goat
and sheep and are habituated to drink mahua-malt
extracted from the flower of widely grown mahua
tree in the neighbouring areas of Raj as than,
Bombay and M. B. Rice is taken on festivals.

The Baigas of Vindhya Pradesh are addicted to
liquor, their main diet is a coarse type of rice
(Kodo) and jowar, pigs and hens ar<? freely
used. 12

One subdivision of Oraons is considered purer
than the rest because it refuses to eat rats and
lizards, a part of the daily diets of the others. x 3

In U. P. maize and various kinds of millets
constitute the basic food of the Korwas, the
Kharwars, the Ghasi and Chero. But rice is a
luxury. The Korwa are among the only people
who will eat bear, pig, fowls, ox, buffalo, and
kinds of beer while Ghasi ate fond of pork and
goat.

The Panika will eat anything except the flesh
of cows and buffaloes, horses, crocodiles, snakes
and lizards, while the Buia eat both beef and
crocodile. The Kharwars, having become Hinduis-
ed, refuse fowls and pork. 14

i* B. S. Mehta, The Bhils & Mecnas, in Tribes of
India, Pt. I., p. 211.

' 2 A. B. Lall, Baigas, Ibid., p. 236.

13 W. H. Gilbert, Peoples of India, p. 75-81.

i* D. N. Majumdar, The Fortunes of Primitive Tribes^
1944-

74 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The Raji of Askot in the Himalayas live mainly
on tubers and other natural vegetable foods, sup-
plemented by rice and millet raised in forest clear-
ings, and fish, birds, and certain wild animals.
They are generally omnivorous. 15

The Abors of Assam practise jhum and there-
fore, eat cereals, millets, chillies, vegetables like
Arvis, yams, pumpkins, brinjals, ginger, onions
and stems and flowers of some wild plantain trees.
Leaves of wild plants are also taken by them in
large quantities. Pigs and chickens, fish and deer,
wild boar, squirrels, wild cats and birds supply
them with meat. Apong (slightly fermented be-
verage) is very common among them. They do
not know how to ue milk as food. Sugar and
jaggery are not available to them. 10

The diet of the Urali and Kanikkar tribes of
Travancore hills is very inadequate. They live
mainly on tapioca, small quantities of rice, some
wild roots and yams. Meat, fish, milk and milk
products do not form part of their diet. They
have no fermented or intoxicating native bever-
age. 17

Shri Sengupta enables us to compare the aver-
age daily diet of various food groups in ozs.

15 S. D. Pant, Social Economy of the Himalayas, pp.
-88-89.

lf P. N. Sengupta, Op. Cit. y pp. 6i-6z
17 Sengupta, Op. CV/., p. 62

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 75

among the non-tribal Indians, the Abors, and the
Uralis in the following table : x 8

Average Daily Intake of Various Food Groups (in ounces)

Food

Rice

Other cereals
Millets and Pulses
Green leafy vegetables
Other vegetables
Flesh foods
Fats and oils
Milk, etc.
Fruits

Sugar- jaggery
JL*rink (pints)

Non-tribal
Indians

16-6

2.*3

0-9
4*1
0-9
0-9
3-3
0'6
0-7

Abors Uralis

Recommended
for non-Tri-
bal Indians

26-4

7-1

14-0 (

0-3

21-4

0-5

M

3-0

1 8

0-04

4-0

1-4

16-9

6-0

1-4

nil

4-0

nil

0-2

20

nil

nil

100

0'6

0-5

3-0

nil

nil

2-0

0-9

nil

...

Nutritive Value of Food consumed per day

Contents

Non-tribal
Indians

Abets Uralis

Calories
Protein (gm)
Fat (gm)

Carbohydrates (gm)
Calcium (gm)
Phosphorus (gm)
Iron (mgm)
Vitamin A-(I U)
Thiamine (mgm)
Riboflavin (mgm)
Niaxin (mgm)
Vitamin C (mgm)

2,550

2,962

2,228

72-1

84*7

36-7

24-7

17-3

6-1

498

624

498

0-6

1-0

0-3

1-9

3-1

6-8

26-5

30-8

11-6

3,020

4,103

265

1'9

1-5

1'6

0-3

0-5

35-4

15-1

44*5

66-0

27-6

Recommended
for non-tribal
Indians

3000

82

1.0

1.5

20

3,000-4,000

1-5

1*8

15

50

An analysis of these tables shows that according
to calories, proteins, minerals and vitamins, etc.,
intake the Abors get 16 per cent more calories and
the Uralis about 9 per cent less than the average

18 Sengupta, Op. Of., p. 63.

j TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Indian. The consumption of proteins is about
17 per cent more among the Abors and about 67
per cent less among the Uralis than what the
Indians get. The calcium intake is about 70 per
cent more in the case of Abors and 50 per cent
less in the case of Uralis than intake among the
Indians. As regards Vitamin A the Abors and
Uralis are respectively getting 33 per cent more
and 21 per cent less than what the average Indian
gets.

It may be well remarked that in spite of the
wholesome nature of the diet of the two abori-
ginal tribes, it suffers from several defects. For
instance, the calory intake is not in accordance
with the climate, body size and work; animal
protein of high biological value is inadequate, and
calcium is supplied by the green leafy vegetables,
the maximum value of which may not be absorbed
in the system. The nutritive value of food con-
sumed by other tribes is not available.

2. Health

The health of the aborigines in India is stated
to be on the whole above the average of that
of the people inhabiting the plains, unless intensive
culture-contact, through coolie labour or other
agencies, has set in. Where the aboriginal still
lives on forest produce or shifting cultivation,
his general level of health is better than that of
the plains-man, mainly because malnutrition is
less pronounced. The same is reported of skin
a nd respiratory diseases. Abandonment of their
original mixed diet in favour of rice diet has

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 77

caused dysentery and cholera to spread. Scabies,
ringworm, skin and veneral diseases are now
more frequently found. Wound and fractures,
because of lack of proper treatment are frequent
causes of death or permanent mutilation.

In Assam, closer contact with civilization has
brought about an increase in diseases. "Not only
have some specific diseases such as venereal diseases
and T. B., been introduced but epidemics spread
more quickly." 19 In mining areas of Bihar and
Orissa, the malaria incidence has been brought
down to the minimum so that the general health of
the people is satisfactory. 20 In Bombay and south-
eastern Aravalli hills the general health of the abori-
ginal is poor. The most common diseases being
malaria, scurvy, guinea-worm, and others resulting
from unhealthy climate, use of drinking water
from the step-wells and malnutrition. Treatment
by witch-doctors and magic are most frequently
resorted to by the aborigines. Among the
Abors the high incidence of goitre is found
both among the males and the females, the main
cause of this is the deficiency of iodine which
perhaps can be explained because of the distance
from the sea. There is no goitre among the
Uralis and Kanikkars of Travancore. 21

In the south malnutrition has caused ravages
among the tribes as a result principally of change

w J. P. Mills, Census of India, 1931, Vol. I., Pt. III. B.
p. 147

10 I. L. O. Indigenous People, 1954, p. 149
21 Sengupta, Op. Cit., p. 97

78 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

from wholesome forest produce to rice diet,
accompanied by arrack and opium introduced by
forest contractors. Mainly through contacts with
outsiders, the Kaddars suffer from cholera, small-
pox, diabetes and albuminaria. 22 The Koya also
suffer (together with the Reddi and the other
tribes of the south) from yaws. 23 More particularly
in Travancore, it is stated that leprosy is now
found among the Kanikkars, the Muduvan, and
the Vishawan, elephantiasis among the Kanikkars;
syphilis among the Paliyan; and smallpox among
the Muduvan, the Mannan and others. All hill
tribes are subject to malaria to which many fall
victim. 24

Scientific medical care both preventive and
curative is inadequate in the majority of the areas
inhabited by aboriginals. For economic reasons a
very high percentage of doctors, pharmacists,
nurses and social workers is concentrated in the
capital cities and urban centres, at great distances
from areas with a large tribal population. The
situation is aggravated by the survival among
tribals of empirical practices of mythical or reli-
gious origin, in matters of food, illness, child-
bearing and weaning, and by illiteracy of an
extremely high proportion of the tribal people.

Modern medicines have not found favour with
these people because of the superstition and lack

21 A, Aiyappan, Op. C//., p. 63

* K. G. Menon, Census of India, 1931, Vol. I. Pt. III. B,
p. 215

24 IHJ. 9 p. 237-8.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 79

of faith in them. They have their own medicine-
men, their own methods of diagnosis and cure
and diseases are generally attributed to the work
of evil spirits. So that whenever diseases break
out these medicine-men are called for. This
attitude of the tribal people can be changed if not
only the administrators but also the doctors and
medical practitioners approach these people in a
spirit of love, without any desire to impose them-
selves on them. By patience, skill and sheer
friendliness, the barriers can be broken down and
then those who never have known relief from pain
and fever will come to them with gratitude and
hope. Indigenous systems of medicine must be
explored and simple natural remedies used when-
ever possible. In this way, the healing touch of
science will reach the tribes, naturally and in-
evitably.

3. Literacy

In view of the low percentage of literacy for
the country as a whole only 16.6% (for males,
24.9% and for females, 7.9%, in 1951)11" is not
surprising that nearly whole "of the tribal people
are illiterate. According to 1931 census figures of
7,611,803 persons belonging to tribal group,
7,567,452 were illiterate, i.e. only 0.58% were
literate. 25 Although 1951 census figures for
literacy among the tribals is not available, there
is no reason to believe that there has been any
change in the situation. Not to say of middle, ,

15 Census of India 1931, Vol. I., Pt. II., p. 427

1901

1911

1921

1931

4

6

9

...

33

38

53

64

50

55

75

84

50

67

68

91

210

217

285

279

252

275

341

353

649

711

794

791

>8o TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

high school and college education even the pri-
mary education is negligible among the aborigines.
The following table indicates the literacy per
1,000 aged 5 and over in tribals as compared with
other important religious groups in the country
since 1901 to 193 1. 26

'Literacy per 1,000 aged / and over

Community

Tribals

Muslims

Hindus

Sikhs

Christians

Jains

Parsis

Taking the figures for 1921 and 1931 by com-
munities, it appears that whilst other communities,
including the tribals, have shown progress there
had been a decline in the literacy of the Parsi and
Christian communities. According to the Census
report it had been due to economic depression in
the case of the former and due to the inclusion of
illiterate converts coming largely from the tribals
and lower Hindu-castes in the case of the latter.

The low figures of literacy among the tribes
is to be expected for the following reasons:

i. Not only are there few schools in villages
inhabited by the aborigines but the people cannot

26 Census of India y 1901, Vol. I. Pt. I., p. 177; Ibid for
1911, p. 311; India for 1921, p. 1 86. and Ibid for 1931, p.
329. Later figures are not available.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 8 1

afford or do not wish to send their children to
urban or rural schools situated far from their
villages.

2. Because of inaccessibility of the indigenous
areas, very few teachers are available who may
be willing to work among the aborigines or to
stay for a reasonable period of time in the areas
unsuited to their taste and devoid of all facilities
of modern life, to which our present youths are
usually accustomed.

3 . There is also the difficulty of the language.
There are not enough people who know tribal
languages.

4. The aborigines themselves do not take the
advantage of the facilities offered, the schools
being for the most part situated in or near places
not easily accessible to them.* 7

For some time past, indigenous education has
made considerable strides in Assam, though this
system does not result in literacy as it is known in
the West. 28 Such education as has been imparted
to the Nagas has not been an unmixed blessing
for there is a surplus of half-educated youths,
unwilling to go back to the village life of their
fathers and looking in vain for employment which
they consider suitable for their talents. 39 The

* 7 A. V. Thakkar, The Problem of Aborigines in India,
p. 15-17.

88 N. K. Rustomji, Glimpses of Tribal Life in North East
Frontiers in Amrit Ba%ar Patrika, Puja Number, 1950, p.
131-32.

89 J. P. Mills, Op. Cit., p. 147-48.
6

ll TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Lushais also dislike manual labour, thus increasing
the number of unemployed and discontented
youths. 80 So also literacy among the Kaddars has
tended to make them dissatisfied and unfit both
for their own mode of living and for any other.
In Trayancore too, education has undermined
their tribal ways and encouraged an attitude of
contempt towards manual labour.

A special syllabus should be drawn up for the
primary stages incorporating activities familiar to
the tribal folk, and later it should incorporate
lessons bearing on the culture of their neighbours.
The medium of instruction must naturally be the
mother-tongue, the tribal language spoken at
home. The regional language should have its
place as a subject of study in the upper forms.
Regarding the script to be adopted the solution
is not so easy. The tribal people should adopt the
script of the regional language of the State, if the
State has a single script. A few new phonemes,
to represent sounds peculiar to the tribal language
should, however, be added. These should be
drawn up bearing in mind the need of new
phonemes for the various tribal languages, so
that no symbol should have more than one sound,
nor should the same sound be indicated by more
than one symbol in different areas.
4. Housing Conditions

The aboriginal dwelling is generally always
damp, insufficiently ventilated, overcrowded and

* C. H. Hclmc in Census of India, 1931, Vol.1.. Pt.
III. B., p.

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 83

devoid of most rudimentary sanitary facilities,
all of which factors strongly favour the spread
of respiratory and digestive diseases, malaria, etc.
In fact, aboriginal dwellings in trees are found
in the continuous belt, from south India (especially
among the Kanikkar and Mandavar in the extreme
south) and sometimes among the Irulas of the
eastern Nilgiri hills, to Assam (among Garo)
and various parts of Indo-China as far as the Miao
country on the Chinese frontier. 51 The houses
are usually mere huts made of forest saplings and
branches and covered with leaf thatching. The
floor is sometimes raised by dumping earth and
beating it down into a platform. 82

In Travancore the Kanikkar, the Mannam,
Muduvan and Paliyan do not raise floors of their
huts above ground level and hence drainage and
sanitation are defective. In Madras, the pastoral
Toda of the Nilgiris have a type of dwelling
peculiar to them. It is rectangular, built of wood
and thatch, with an ogival roof. The Paniyans
live in poorly constructed low huts built of bam-
boo and leaves. A number of huts form a hamlet.
The houses of Lyngngum Khasi in central Assam
are long rectangular pile dwellings, raised a little
above the ground at entrance which faces the
inner square of the village.

81 G. Montandon, quoted in I. L. O.'s, Indigenous
People, $. 119

82 P. C Menon, KaJars of Cochin, in Census cf India,
VoLL, Pt. III. B., p. 213.

84 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

The houses of the Bhils living in the hilly
country is different from those of the plains. In
the plains they live in villages close together, while
in the hilly country the living is of the scattered
type. The house about 10 'x 8 1 has low roofs,
scarcely 6' high, mostly thatched and in some cases
tiled, supported by four mud walls with no
window, hole or aperture of any kind for light or
air protected by a door of bamboo matting.

The size of the Kharia settlements differs accord-
ing to their cultural stage. The hill fCharias live
in groups of five to ten families in huts scattered
over the hillside at distances of hundred yards or
more, but the more advanced Dhelki Kharias
live in regular villages with sacred groves, dancing
arenas and the village burial-ground where the
bones of the deceased relatives are ceremonially
interred at intervals. The Christian Kharia vil-
lages are neat and more compact, with the houses
more substantially built. The hill Kharias and also
the Dhelkis build dormitories where the bachelors
and the maidens live separate but the Christian
villages have abandoned the practice.

Raw meat is not eaten by the Kharias and beef
is unpopular with all sections of the tribe. Salt is
very popular with them and they take plenty of
it with their food. Meat is salted and dried, vege-
tables are boiled with salt, and the advanced
section of the Kharias have learnt to prepare curry
with vegetables, onion, powdered turmeric, pulses
and meat salted to taste. This preference for salt
may lead to some physiological change and such

TRIBES IN INDIA STANDARD OF LIVING 85

aspects of nutrition in primitive society require
careful investigation. The Kharias have experi-
mented with all kinds of leaves and tubers as food
and have developed a taste for a large number of
leaves and flowers.

The Kuki villages consist of tiny settlements
in the jungles, of four to five huts, built of
bamboo and cane. The Kukis are 'by temperament
nomadic/ The peculiar vagabond strain if not
controlled leads to villages splitting into hamlets
and the latter subdividing till, as in the Manipur
hills, we find single houses in the midst of
dense jungle several miles from the next habi-
tation. In the jungle the nomad Kuki builds
lightly and a habitation of sorts can be erected in
a few hours with bamboo mats as walls and with
leaves for the thatch to keep out the rain. Where
the Kukis live a settled life, they construct large
solidly built houses, 50 to 60 ft. long, 15 to 20 ft
wide and 7 to 10 ft. high. The houses are built
on long bamboo poles, the lower halves of which
when covered up provide accommodation for
cattle and pigs. Each house has a few bamboo
cages, kept on either side of the entrance, in which
fowl and pigeons are kept.

6. TRIBES IN INDIA THEIR CIVIL

AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS
Sex Distribution

Apart from the general disparity of sexes in the
country, there is found a great inequality of sexes
between different socio-economic groups too.
Among the major communities of India, the scar-
city of females is the largest. In 1931, the Sikhs
had only 78 females for every 100 males as against
95 females in the case of Hindus and Christians ;
90 in Muslims and 94 in Jains and Parsis. The
tribals had slight excess of females. In 1951, the
position was something like this : there were 84
females among the Sikhs, 94 among the Hindus,
99 among the Christians, 92 among the Jains, 98
among the Parsis, 94 among the Muslims and
95 among the Tribals per 100 males. The follow-
ing table gives the sex distribution of population
in the important religious groups since 1891 i 1
Females per 1,000 Males

Community

1891

1901

1921

1931

1951

Hindus

962

969

954

953

94S

Muslim*

940

937

909

904

944

Trials

991

1016

996

1009

951

Christian*

913

935

935

952

992

Jains

N. A.

N.A.

931

941

527

Sikhs

N. A.

N. A.

755

784

84S

Parsis

N. A.

N.A.

944

940

982

India

958

963

945

941

947

1 Census of India, ion; ioji tad Census of lodia 1951*
Vol. 1, Pt, L A.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 87

It will be observed that in comparison to othet
communities Tribals have, except Christians, Jains
and Parsis, a higher number of females per 1,000
males, this is because they have generally late
marriages, and hence the early years of greater
fertility are over by the time marriage is con-
tracted.

Menarche

Most of our data about the primitive tribes
are of a perfunctory nature. The statistical value
of the accounts given by the travellers, missiona-
ries, and the anthropologists are very dubious.
The data regarding the age of menarche among
the tribal people are even more so. Of course,
some data have been collected by eminent wor-
kers in the field like those of Dr. Elwin and Dr.
Majumdar. According to Dr. Elwin, the most
likely age for the menarche among the tribal
people of Madhya Pradesh is between 12 and 15.
Dr. Majumdar examined 367 girls, all of them in
their teens, of seven tribes of northern India, of
which only the Hos, the Korwas, and the Tharus
provided most reliable data. Out of the total
number, only 12 had their first menstruation below
10 years, 97 had it between 10 12, ; 191 between
12 14 ; 56 between 14 16 and n at 16 and
above. Calculated on the percentage basis, 3-3%
of the cases were below 10 years ; 26-4% between
10 and 12 years ; 52% were between 12 and 14
years ; and 15*3% between 14*16 years ; and only
3% above 16 and over. Thus it will be observed
that in 78*40% of the cases the ages of menarche

88 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

among the tribal girls were between 12 and 14
compared with 92-0% among the girls of all races
in India. Secondly, menstruation appears at early
age among the Mongoloid tribes the Garos, the
Kukis, and the Tharus which distinguishes them
from the Austroloid or pre-Dravidian tribes like
the Hos, Mundas, and others. 2

As compared to the Tribals, 80 per cent of the
Indian girls (according to the Age of Consent
Committee) get their menstruation between 12 and
15 years. J. Robinson found 12 years 4 months
as average age for menarche in Hindu girls of
Calcutta ; 1 3 years 2 months in Madras ; and 1 3
years 3 months in Bombay. In cool climate the
period sets in at a bit higher age. Kreiger observes
that the average age for menstruation in Christiana
is 1 6 years 9 months 25 days ; it is 15 years 7
months 25 days in Berlin ; 15 years i month 14
days in London ; and 14 years 5 months 29 days in
Lyons ; 13 years, n months n days in Marseilles;
10 years, o months, o days in Sierra Leone and
12 years, o months, o days in Calcutta. 3
Marriage

Between menstruation and motherhood there

1 D. N. Majumdar, Matrix of Indian Culture, p. 78-80.

8 Cart Saunders, World Population Problem, p. 91.

It is interesting to note that some authors like Carr
Saunders are of the opinion that, there is no close or definite
connection between climate and menstruation ; but others
like Engelmann believes that there is some connection. In
.support of his views he gives the menstruation average age
as 12.9 years for the Tropics; 15*5 years for the Tem-
perate and i6'5 yrs. for the cold zone.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 89

is a longer gap among the tribal women than is
noticed among others. Marriage is usually late
but practised almost universally in the tribal
society, the only exception being the Hos of
Kolhan. From the Census statistics, 1931, we
find that there were 687 wives per 1,000 females
between the ages of 1 5 to 20, as compared with
564 among the Christians, 909 among the Hindus,
and similar number among the Muslims. The
following table gives marital status by religion,,
in percentages, for India in 1931 : 4

Marital Status of Women aged ij-}9 by Religion
(In Percentages)

Community

Jains

Hindus

Muslims

Sikhs

Tribal*

Christians

Buddhists

Parsis

Thus it will be seen that all the religious
groups sharply differ in marital status.

Child marriage is practically absent among the
tribes, though of late many tribes have introduced
child marriage under the influence of Hindu cul-
ture. In Chota Nagpur the more well-to-do

4 Census of India , 1931. Later figures not available.

Unmarried

Married

Widowed

4

78

18

4

80

16

5

85

10

8

87

15

10

80

10

15

80

5

15

UO

5

45

50

5

TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

families of Santhals, Mundas and the Oraons have
come into close contact with the Hindus. Among
them the age of marriage for girls has come down
to even 9 or 10 and for the boys to 12 or 13. The
same is the case with the Bhils of Gujrat and
Nimar division in M. P. But among the Nagas
and Kukis of Assam, girls marry between the ages
of 15 to 20 and the boys between the age of 18
and 25, Some tribes like the Hos and the Mundas
of Chota Nagpur marry their girls pretty late. The
high bride price necessary for marriage makes it
difficult for the young man to marry and marriage
is consequently postponed till late in life. Girls
seldom marry before 18 and 20 and men seldom
below 25 or even 30. In other tribes too in
Northern India, the average age of girls does not
fall below 15 or go above 20.

The groom is usually older than the bride
in the tribal areas but the opposite is not unknown
in Assam, e.g. among the Purum Kukis. Usually
the difference in age between the husband and
wife is never below 1 5 . Many of the cases of rape,
abduction, elopement and widowhood are to
be traced to this disparity in the ages between
husband and the wife. More often than not, a
man is married at the age of 35 to a girl of 15, so
^that when he is 50 the girl is 30. The psycho-
sexual life of a woman demands her normal sexual
life to continue while the husband may feel it
otherwise. This great difference in age between
husband and wife reacts adversely on the fertility
rf the wife.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 9!

Pre-martial and Extra-martial Sex Relations

There is considerable opportunity for ^ the
satisfaction of the sex-impulses outside marriage
among the tribals of India. Pre-marital sexual
chastity is not very rigidly insisted upon in a large
number of tribes. Among the Muria Gonds of
Bastar, according to Dr. Elwin, bachelors and
maidens of a village pass the night in a common
house where they pair off according to their choice.
The mates are changed occasionally or regularly.
This continues till they are married and leave the
organisation. Marriage between the mates of the
Ghotul (Bachelor's House) is very rare. 6 Each
Oraon bachelor had a sweetheart in the spinster's
house half a century ago. If a girl refused to
accept a lover, she was 'cut* off by the older girls
who refused to dance with her till she accepted a
paramour. The Bachelor's House organisation
has now gone underground and it is difficult to
say what the present conditions are. 7 Among the
Naga tribes also we find similar pre-nuptial laxity.
"The Aos," writes Dr. Hutton, "are notorious for
the unchastity of their women... From a tender age
girls are free to do as they like before marriage,
and are thus with difficulty prevented from doing
so afterwards. The unmarried girls sleep in small
houses, built for the purpose, in twos or threes,
and the unmarried men sleep with them/' 8 Only
adult marriage is in vogue among the Ao Nagas,
according to Smith, "but prior to wedlock

6 Elwin, The Marias and Their Gbotul, p. 333.

7 S. K. Roy, Tht Oraons> pp. 146-7*

* Dr. J. Hutton, The Angami Nagas, p. 574.

92 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

the girls are allowed great freedom. It is said that
Naga brides who are entitled to wear the "orange
blossom of virginity" on the wedding day are
very rare. The girls sleep by twos or threes in
separate houses or in the houses of widows, where
they are visited nightly by their lovers." 9 Girls
among the Angami Nagas consider short hair, the
symbol of virginity, to be a disgrace and are very
anxious to become entitled to wear it long. 1

Post-marital laxity is also not unknown among
the tribes of other parts. During the more
important festivals, such as the Magh Parab among
the Hos and the Khaddi among the Oraon men
and women freely indulge in sex-relations. It may,
therefore, safely be said that there is considerable
opportunity for the satisfaction of sex-desires out-
side the marital tie among at least some of the
tribals of India, yet we find that marriage is uni-
versal among them. It may, hence, be concluded
that sex-activity is not the main objective of
marriage. Economic co-operation seems to be the
basis for marital union, though emotional inter-
stimulation and procreation of children as motives
of marriage also exist.

Among the Konyak Naga a girl continues her
amours even after her marriage. It is only w r hen
a child is born to her that she moves to her
husband's household, it being known that the
child if it is not his does not cause any incon-
venience.

~* W. C. Smith, The Ao Nagas Tribe of Ass*m, p. 57-

10 Compare Westermarck, The Origin and Develop-
ment of Moral Ideas > Vol. II, p. 423.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 93

Playfair says of the Garos, "On the occasion of
certain festivals it is an uneven law that young
girls and men sleep together after the entertain-
ment is over, and the partnership of one night is
expected to precede a life-long union. It is not
absolutely necessary that they should thereafter
live as husband and wife, and no obloquy is
incurred by the girl on account of her lapse from
the path of virtue, unless she is found later to be
an expectant mother."*

In middle India, pre-marital liaisons are over-
looked unless of course they lead to pregnancy,
which is generally regarded as shameful for the
girPs parents, even if the pregnancy be caused
by a suitor-servant's attention. The girl is asked
to name the child's father and he is forced to
marry her. No, or only reduced bride price
may be paid when such girls are married off.

Among some tribes, like the Muria, adolescent
life is one of preparation for all the activities of
adult; and in their dormitories grown-up girls are
often found to train younger boys in the art of
love and sex-life.

The Tharu men are so much under the thumbs
of their beautiful wives that they take no offence
at the latter 's lax sex morals. The Khasa have
developed a double standard of morality whereby
a woman as a wife (ranti) has to observe a strict
sex-moral code, but as a daughter (dhyanti) has
free scope to have as many liaisons and amours as

*Playfair, The Garos, 1909, p. 68.

94 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

she likes. In view of this the Khasa women never
completely cut off themselves from their parent's
households.

Pre-marital sex-laxity is also observable in other
tribes of the world. Among the Port Barrow
Eskimos, according to Murdoch, "promiscuous
sexual intercourse between married and unmarried
people, or even among the children, appears to be
looked upon merely as a matter for amusement." 1 *
Of the Indians of the North-west, U. S. A., Gibbs
writes, "Cohabitation of unmarried females among
their own people brings no disgrace if unaccom-
panied by chUd-b:rth...This commences at a very
early age, perhaps ten or twelve years." 1 a Speak-
ing of the Columbian Indians, Bancroft says, '*
"Unmarried women have not die slighest idea of
chastity and freely bestow their favours in return
for a kindness or for a very small consideration
in property paid to themselves or parents. 1S "

Powers thinks, "There is scarcely an attribute
known as virtue or chastity in either sex before
marriage among the Californian Indians/' 14 Writ-
ing of conditions in Africa, Johnston says, "As
regards the little girls, over nearly the whole of

11 Ethnological Results of the Port Barrov Expedition*
Ninth Annual Report, 1884, p. 419.

* Gibbs, The Tribes of Westtrn Washington and North-
vest Oregon, Vol. I, p. 189

** Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of
North America, Vol. I., p. 112.

* The Trifas of California, U. S. A. Gcog., and GeoL
Survey, Vol. HI., p. 157.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 9f

British Central Africa, chastity before puberty is
an unknown condition. Before a girl is to become
a woman it is a matter of absolute indifference^
what she does, and scarcely any girl remains a
virgin after about five years of age/' 15 Weeks
says that among the Bangala "above the age of
five years it would be impossible to find a girl
who was a virgin." 16 "If," writes Willoughby,,
"there is ever a time when Bantu boys and girls
are not familiar with sexual subjects, it must be in
years when they have not yet become familiar with
anything. Little effort is made to shield children
from sexual contaminations ; but on the contrary r
it adds spice to the elders' amusement when little
voices try to sing these fearful songs, and small
children ape their parents' vices. Nothing seems
to matter till puberty is approached ; and then
there is a sudden attempt to look after the girls." 1 7
In regard to the people of Burma, Webb writes,,
"Among many of the tribes there is great moral
laxity prior to marriage. Thus among the Siyin
and Sokte tribes of the Chins, female virtue is not
expected, provided an unmarried girl takes the
precautions to prevent motherhood before marri-
age. Boys and girls sleep together without
hindrance, and a young man openly cohabits with
his mistress in the house of her parents. Simi-
larly among the Kachins, young people are allowed

16 Johnson, British Central Africa, p. 409.

16 The Bangala of tbt Uppe* Congo, Journal of tb* Anthro-
pological Institute, Vol. XXXIX, 1909, p. 442.

17 Race Problem in Ne*> Africa, 1923, p. 127.

96 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

to consort as they .please before marriage though
the marriage prohibitions are usually observed
even in pre-marital intercourse. Special bache-
lors' huts are placed at the disposal of any couple
who wish to try the experiment with each other.
The experiments are continued indefinitely on both
sides until a suitable match is found, and then marri-
age ensues. It is claimed that unchastity after marri-
age does not exist, owing to the freedom of experi-
ment before marriage " 18 Of the people of New-
zealand, writes Best, "that a girl would have inter-
course with a youth before she arrived at puberty.
At times marriage took place and was consum-
mated at this early age." 19 "It would appear,"
says Hartland, ''that sexual intercourse before
puberty is either recognized by a formal marriage
or tolerated as the gratification of a natural ins-
tinct among a great variety of people in all quar-
ters of the globe." *

Among a number of tribes there is a general
sexual indulgence with the girl when she is
initiated. Among some tribes the old men have
priority rights during the initiation of the girl ;
while with others the girl is subject to all the
men who may get hold of her. Wilshire reports
that after initiation of the girls (circumcision
ceremony) are sexually "at the mercy of all who

18 Census of India, 1911, Vol. IX, Burma, Pt. I., p. 148.

w The Peopling of New Zealand, Man, Vol. XIV., 1914,
p. 32.

10 The Primitive Paternity, 1909, Vol. I., p. 272.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 97

may get hold of them/* 21 Oldfield tells us that
there is a sexual initiation ceremony before a female
is considered fit for marriage among the west
Australian tribes, and in it all the males of the
tribe partake. 2 2 Malinowshi, speaking in general
of chastity, says, "Before marriage the girl has to
submit to a general sexual intercourse, and after
it the woman becomes on many occasions the
property of another man." 23 He points out that
among the Trobriand Islanders pre-marital coitus
is expected, no birth control methods are known,
yet the women rarely bear children before they
are married. 24

Selection of Mates

The selection of mates is an important affair
even in primitive society. The rules of endogamy,
exogamy, hypergamy, preferential mating, and
prohibited degrees operate simultaneously and
thereby considerably restrict the freedom of choice.
Thus a SanthaJ has to marry within his own tribe,
but not of his own clan. Among the Purum
Kukis of Manipur, marriage between cross-cousins
is preferred. 25 A Garo man has to marry his
mother-in-law as she is the owner of that family
property. Marriage between grandparents and
grandchildren has also been reported from amongst

*i Wilshire, The Aborigines of Central Asia, p. 30.
22 Oldfield, On the Aborigines of Australia, p. *jri.
2 Malinowshi, The Family among the Australian Abori-
gines ', p. 105.

" Malinowski, The Father in Primitive Psychology.
25 T. C. Dass, The Purums, p. 241.

7

98 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

the Gonds of M. P. Among the Lakhers of Lus-
hai Hills marriage with the widowed step-mother
and with the widow of the son is also found. 26
In the Bhils of Bombay and Rajasthan, widow
remarriage is commonly practised and if there is
no one to look after her children, she takes them
with her to the new husband. A younger brother
can keep the widow of his elder brother but not
vice versa. 27

The means of acquiring a mate in tribal society
are varied and interesting. In the primitive
society payment is the most common way of
securing a wife. The amount, of course, varies
according to the economic conditions of the tribe.
The Santhals, Hos, Mundas, Kharias, Oraons,
Gonds, Nagas, Kukis, Bhils and others pay for
their brides as a general rule. But even amongst
them there are also found other means of getting
a wife which may be discussed here briefly.

i. Marriage by service is the only way to
secure a bride among the Purums of Manipur.
The prospective groom has to serve in the house
of his bride's father for 3 years. He may be
employed to do any work that the sons of the
house may be required to perform. He has board
and lodging during this period in the house of
his prospective father-in-law. 28 This practice is
also found among the Rangkhol Kukis, Aimols,
Anals, and Chirus.

26 Parry, The Lakbers, p. 294.

t7 D. N. Majumdar, Races a*d Cultures of India, p. 145.

w T. C Das, Op. C//., p. 242.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 99

2. Marriage by capture is another method
found among many of the Chota Nagpur tribes,
such as the Hos, Santhals, Mundas, Bhumijas and
others. In the negotiated marriages, too, the
father of the girl requests the groom to take the
bride away by force. The date and time for this
is arranged mutually ; the bride shows some resis-
tance but ultimately allows herself to be abducted.
Such an abduction-marriage increases the prestige
of the bride's parents. 29

When a boy falls in love with a girl who does
not reciprocate his feelings or when her father is
not agreeable to the match, the boy may force
their hands by simply putting a vermillion mark
on the forehead of the girl, which, constitutes
formal marriage. Soon after this the boy leaves
the village and remains in hiding till the matter is
settled between the guardians of both the parties.
This is found among Santhals, Bhumijas, Hos,
Mundas and other tribes of Chota Nagpur and
Orissa.

3 . Marriage by elopement is another method
common among these tribes. When a boy and a
girl love each other but their parents are not
agreeable to the match the parties take resort to
this means. After two or three months they come
back to the village and are accepted as husband
and wife.

4. Intrusion-marriage is another peculiar
method of securing a mate which is generally

lf T. C. Dass, The Vbttmijas of Saraikella, p. n.

100 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

found among the Santhals and other tribes. Here
the initiative is taken by the bride. When a boy
has intimate relations with a girl whom he pro-
mises to marry but postpones the ceremony
continually, she stealthily enters his hut one early
morning and takes her seat in one corner. The
mother of the boy tries to drive out the girl by
all means. If the girl sticks to her position to
the last, she wins her case. The neighbours
assemble in the courtyard, and the boy is forced
to marry.

5 . Marriage by settlement is usually common
among the Bhils.

Forms of Marriage

In India we have all the forms of marital life
among the tribes, vi^. monogamy, polyandry
and polygyny. In tribal India, polygamy is
widespread. Two forms of polygamy may be
differentiated ; polygyny is the marriage of
one man to several women ; and polyandry the
marriage of one woman to several men. Both
types of marriage are referred to as polygamy in
common parlance. Of all these monogamy is
the most prevalent form but it is not obligatory
for any tribe. The Khasi, the Santhal and
Kadar are monogamous.

Polyandry is practised among the Todas and
Tiyan of the south and the Jaunsar Bawar of the
Himalayas, the Kota, the Khasa and the Ladakhi
Bota, where there is either paucity of females as
among the Todas, or where poverty is very

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 1OI

rampant as in Jaunsar Bawar so that family pro-
perty is kept undivided by allowing a common
wife to all the brothers in the family. The Nayar
were polyandrous and there are many survivals
of the custom found among them even today.
In India, polyandry is of two types. When several
brothers share the same wife, as among the
Khasa and the Toda, we have 'adelphic', or 'fra-
ternal polyandry/ In the general type, also found
among the Toda, there need not be any close
relationship between the husbands and the wife
goes to spend some time with each husband So
long as a woman lives with one of her husbands,
the others have no claim over her. Nayar pol-
yandry was of this type.

Polyandry is found to lead to fewer .children
to every woman, more male children, and a high
incidence of sterility among women.

Polygyny is almost universally allowed in pri-
mitive society but rarely practised by individuals.
Economic condition is the limiting factor. Tribal
chiefs sometimes indulge in large number of
wives for economic reasons like the supply of
labour, the desire for children, the lucky inheri-
tance of one or more wives from father or elder
brother, and the craving for prestige, etc. Poly-
gyny is found among the Naga tribes, the Gond,
the Baigas, the Toda, the Lushai clans and most
of other Proto-Austroloid tribes of Middle India.

In every tribe marriage is brought about by
a numoer or rituals wnicn give social recognition
to the union. Dancing, feasting, and music

102 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

give publicity to, and serve as evidence of, the
union. Some of the rituals symbolise the union
of two individuals by tying their clothes, hands
or bodies, or mixing their blood. Instances of
one or other of these rites are found in all the
tribes of India.

Divorce, Remarriage and Widowhood

Divorce, remarriage and widowhood are also
elements of the marital institution. Divorce is
quite common among the tribes. Among the
Khasis there are few middle-aged persons who
have not changed their mates once or twice for
reasons of adultery, barrenness and incompatibility
of temperament. Divorce is brought about by a
formal ceremony in most of the cases. Sakam-
arach, which literally means leaf-tearing, is the
regular divorce ritual of the Santhals which is per-
formed in the presence of the whole village. The
husband and wife tear three sal leaves each and
upset a brass pot filled with water with invoca-
tions to the Sun-god. The Oraons of Bihar have
a very sensible custom which prescribes that a
widower must marry a widow or a divorced
woman and not a maiden. But human ingenuity
has found a way to circumvent this healthy cus-
tom by getting the maiden-bride married first to
a tree and then to the human bridegroom. 30

Among the Lushai, the dissolution of marriage
is a much simpler affair. If a husband turns out

M T. C. Das, Social Organisation in the Adivasis,
p. 113.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 103

his wife, he must pay the balance of the bride
price, if any, is due. However, if his wife deserts
him or is caught in adultery, she has to arrange
for the return of the bride price her husband
paid for her. A second marriage between those
once divorced is possible. Among the Kuki also
divorce is easily obtained.

The Gonds allow divorce freely on grounds of
marital infidelity, carelessness in household work,
barrenness and quarrelsome disposition. Either
party can take the initiative in obtaining a disso-
lution. However, the husband a wife chooses
after divorce may have to compensate the first
husband if the divorce has been obtained against
his will or at his request, but on account of a
recognized fault in, or a punishable offence of
the wife.

The Kharia also permit the right to demand
dissolution to either party, on grounds of marital
infidelity, sterility of the wife, laziness, refusal
of the wife to live with her husband, theft and
adjudication by the village 'panchayat' that the
wife is a witch. It may be noted that none of
these charges, except perhaps the first one is
ever preferred against the husband.

Instances of divorce can be cited from all the
known tribes of India.

Fertility

The data about the life of the tribes are often
quite unreliable because much of the evidence

104 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

does not distinguish between fecundity and ferti-
lity of the primitive people. There are two
opposite views regarding the fecundity of the
primitive people. One view holds that the primi-
tive people had not only an unrestricted but a
very high fecundity. The other places primitive
people at the bottom of the fecundity scale. Prof.
Carr-Saunders is of the opinion that "fecundity
has increased with civilization/' He takes the
Indians and the Chinese as intermediate between
pre-historic people and the Europeans. Since the
time of pre-historic man fecundity is said to have
increased, this being apparent in the nature of a
modification due to the changed conditions of
life. He also traces this increase as biologically
determined for the reproductive organs of man
have undergone change, those of the more primi-
tive races of mankind being smaller and in all
respects less developed than those of civilized
races. 31 In other "words, there is a connection
between lesser development of the reproductive
organs and a lower degree of fecundity. 3 2 This is
a statistical conclusion for which sanction has been
sought from Biology. It is not possible to prove
with our present knowledge of human fecundity,
that biological differences account for differential
fecundity.

Fecundity is the capacity of a woman to bear
children while fertility is the actual number born.

81 Other writers claim that the reproductive organs of
trie Negro group are unusually large. H. H. Johnson The
Negro in the New World, 1914, p. 9.

81 Carr-Saunders, The Population Problem, p. 97.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 105

According to Duncan, "Fecundity is the actual
power of reproduction while fertility is the degree
of production. 5 ' 33 A woman may have the power
of giving birth to twenty children but give birth to
only four. In that case her fecundity would be
twenty children, but her fertility four. Under very
exceptional circumstances, rarely enough, fertility
of a woman corresponds with her absolute power
of reproduction, 34 so that the number of children
born for which statistics may be available is no
measure of fertility, much less of fecundity.

Human species, like all other forms of life, has
an excessive fecundity. It is estimated that the
normal ejaculation of a man contains 226,000,000
spermatozoa and that the ovaries of a woman
contain about 75,000 ova. Not more than 500
of these ova, however, develop to maturity during
the fertile period of a woman's life, and not more
than 20 or 30 can possibly be used for reproduc-
tion. One ovum matures each lunar month between
puberty and the menopause, and for each matured
ovum the male develops at least 850,000,000
spermatozoa. Since only one ovum and one
spermatozoon are needed in each reproduction we

33 H. G. Duncan, Race and Population Problems , 1926,
p. 258

84 "It has been observed that civilized man has an
excessive fecundity and abundant fertility which is constantly
underestimated. The fecundity of man is at least two
hundred times as great as is needed to keep up population.
Of woman it is at least tour times as great as neeaea.' 3
H. G. Duncan, Op. Cit, p. 272.

IC6 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

gain some idea of the latent reproductive power of
human beings.

Ordinarily a woman can give birth to a child
every year and a half during her reproductive
period (extending from 15 to 45 years of age). If
this fecund period extends from i j to 4 j years only,
she would be able to give birth to 20 children.
Many women have longer fecund periods, and
some can have children at intervals of 10 months.
Matthews Duncan estimates that a normal woman
of civilized races, living in wedlock throughout
her fecund period, under favourable circumstances,
bears from 10 to 12 children. 35 In fact the
fecundity of the human beings is very great. A
single pair of human beings could have produced
the present world population in 1800 years. 36

The fertility of woman varies from tribe to
tribe, as it does with the different species, with
members of the same species, and often with the
same member of the same species. Economic
conditions are largely responsible for the difference
in fertility between tribes. In agricultural years
of prosperity, the number of marriages increases
and with the couple of years the effect is manifest
in the large incidence of birth.

According to Dr. Majumdar the average
number of children per family among the Hos is
5 .16 per completed fertility, that of Oraon, 6; Kuki,
6.5; Konds, 7.2; and Tharus, 6.5. 37 The fertility

M M. Duncan, Fecundity, Fertility and Sterility, p. 112.

H. G. Duncan, Op. Cit., p. 271.

17 D. N. Majumdar, Matrix of Indian Culture* p. 87-8 g.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 107

of tribal women in India appears to be higher than
that of those outside India. For according to
Boas, the average number of children born per
mother among the Nass River Indians is 4. 8;
among the Kwakiut^.j; Utambtj^; Atlakyapa-
mugnes 5.8. 38 The survival rate among the Nass
River Indians is 55.5%; 26.6% among the Kwa-
kiutl; 64.6% in Utamk; and 41-4% in Atlakyapa-
mugnes. Compared with these tribes the figures
for the Hos are 67%; for Oraons 65%; for Kuki
61%; for the Khonds 41%; for the Tharus 52%
and for the Saoras 56 per cent. 39 According to
Prof. Krzywicki, the fertility of the tribes, except
the Australians and the Negro are not correct.

That Indian tribes are more fertile than their
colleagues in other parts of the world is a
fact true probably because the influence of
contacts has not been as disastrous in India as
elsewhere. Whereas in most parts where the White
people have colonised or settled for exploitation
of new lands, the tribal people have become extinct
or are tending towards extinction, in India either
due to isolation or through non-interference, the
tribes have maintained their prolific fertility
though the survival rate as found among them can
be traced to the widespread prevalence of sexual
diseases, syphilis being pretty commonamong them.
Further, the lower survival rate which is traced to
high infantile mortality has been brought about by

81 F. Boas, Fifth Report on the Indians of Br. Columbia and
Tenth Report on the N. W. Tribes of Canada, p. 549-551.

*> D. N. Majumdar, Op. 9 Cit., p. g*

108 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

changes in the economic base of the tribes, as many
of the tribes, originally in the hunting stage have
been absorbed in the agricultural stage and such
adjustment has caused discomforts and disintegra-
tion of most of their tribal beliefs in the preven-
tion and cure.

It may be pointed out that the fertility is
greater among the tribal people than among
advanced groups, e. g. in Assam in 1931, the
average number of children per family among
the tea garden coolie castes was 34 while that
among the hill tribes was 4.7. At every period
of marriage duration "hill women" have more
children than coolie women and that at the end
of her reproductive life a coolie man would
normally have 6 children and a hill woman 7 to 8.
If Hinduisation is a higher cultural stage, the
Hinduised sections of the tribal population shiow
a lower fertility than the tribals. Even the dy ng
tribes have a high fertility. Westermark refersto
some statements made by different investigators
where primitive women are stated to be more or
less prolific. We may tentatively conclude, though
this would go against the assumptions of Prof.
Carr-Saunders, that so far as fertility is concerned,
the primitive and backward tribes have quite high
fertility. Where the tribes have adjusted them-
selves to the new economic base, the fertility has
not slowed down but where there is maladaptation
in progress not only the fertility has been lowered
but tne incidence ot tertiiity and abortion have
put lim't to the size of the families.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

The fertility enquiry made in 1931 reveals the
following information regarding the fertility of
dufferent religious groups in India. 40

No. of Children per Family

Communities Number Community Number

Tribals 5.0 Hindus 4.3

Christians 5.0 Jains 4.2

Rajputs 4.8 Depressed Classes 4.1

Parsis 4.6 Sikhs 4,1

Muslims 4.4 Buddhists 3.8

From these figures it will be noticed that the-
people who are at the top of the social ladder
the rich, the urban and the better educated
sects have a low proportion of children. On
the other hand, the Christians and the Sikhs who
have recruited large number of members from the
lower ranks of Hindu society have higher ranks.
The highest of all are the Tribals, who are
primitives with presumably the reproductive be-
haviour of the most aboriginal groups. Both
Hindus and Muslims fall in an intermediate^
group, with the Muslims having a substantially
higher ratio than the Hindus.

The following are the figures of Child-womaa
ratios by religion: 41

< Census of India 1931, Vol. I., Pt. I.

41 Computed from Census of India* Vol. I. Pt. 2,1911^
pp. 44-46,51; 1921, pp. 46-43, 56; and 1931, pp. 121-23

110 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Child-Woman Ratios by Religion, Average for
and

Community

Children 0-4

per 1,000

Women aged 15-39

Parais

338

Jains

625

Hindut

678

Buddhists

698

Christians

741

Muslims

770

Tribals

808

Sikhs

841

AH religions

705

Children 0-4
per 1,000 married
Women aged 15-39

735
804
817
932
866
900
1,023
960
844

From this table the same conclusion can be
-drawn that the Tribals are more fertile than the rest
of the religious groups in the country. Those
religious groups that permit a great amount of
widow remarriage have apparently a higher general
fertility than those that permit a small amount.

Similarly when two races both living a similar
kind of life under similar conditions, one practises
early marriage and the other does not, e. g. the
Hindus and Muslims in India, fertility is higher
among the latter than among the former 4 2 because
when marriage of young people is consummated
at an early age, a fairly large number of wives
die of pthisis or other diseases of the respiratory
organs or from some ovarian complication within
10 years of the consummation of marriage. 43

It may be mentioned here that if some of the
primitive tribes are declining in number or are

11 Carr-Saunders, The Population Problem, p. 104.
4S P. K. Wattal, The Population Problem in India, 1916,
p. 13.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS III

manifesting a tendency towards it, it is not due
to their lower fecundity but the conditions of life
which discourage families and make rearing of a
large family almost impossible. That the vitality
of tribes has not been absolutely impaired will
be evident from the proportion of masculinity in
the population in different cultural stages. The
proportion of masculinity among tribal population
*s much lower than among the higher castes, e. g.
Brahmins had 902 females per 1,000 males, and
Rajputs, 868, Bhils 981, and Santhals 998 in 1931*

Though the figures for mortality at different
age periods are not available, but investigations
in specified areas have shown the phenomenal
absence of aged people among the tribal people.
From the census figures of 1931, we find that the
percentages of persons aged 44 and over is higher
among the Hindus and Muslims than among the
tribes The Brahmins, e. g. had 19 per cent
of their total number between the age period 44
and above, but the Saoras 12 percent; Bhils 12.8
per cent and the triba Kolis only 10 per cent.
While the proportion of aged people is compara-
tively small among the tribal people, that of
children 0-5 years is decidedly higher than it is
among the higher castes; among the Hindus it is
15 per cent but among the tribal it is 19 per cent.
The high fertility among the tribal people is
offset by a high infantile mortality and, therefore,
the number of children reared by tribal mothers
at any time does not exceed those reared up by
caste mothers.

112 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Sterility

There is a small percentage of human family
that never experiences a fecund life or fecund
cycle, but is sterile. Among the aboriginals
sterility is often regarded as a curse of the gods and
they take every precaution to prevent it, yet it
appears to be common among them. Much of the
sterility among males is due to gonorrhea, which
is thought to be a very old and widespread
disease. According to Spencer and Gillin sterility
is common among the Australian tribes.

Control of Birth

Fertility in primitive society is checked by celi-
bacy, by restrictions of the age of marriage, by long
periods during which mothers nurse their young
and by various restrictions about sexual intercourse*

As stated above there is very little celibacy
among the aboriginal people. They see no reason
for one's remaining unmarried and generally
hasten to enter into the married state as soon
after puberty as customs will permit.

Any extended delay in marriage limits the
possible number of children. Young women are
more fecund than older women still in the
reproductive period. Dunlop thinks a "year's
delay when woman is aged from 20 to 25 averages
0*45 of a child ; 0*37 when she is aged from 25
to 30 ; 0-32 when she is aged from 30 to 35 ; 0*29
when she is aged from 35 to 40 and 0*19 when
she is aged from 40 to 45. " 44

* Dunlop, Fertility of Marriage in Scotland, quoted by
H. G. Duncan, Op. Cit,, p. 305.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 113

The nursing period is generally extended to
2 or 3 years and often much longer. Man states
that the Andaman Islanders never wean their
babies so long as they are able to suckle them." 45
Although important, the effect of lactation or
fecundity is not definitely known. It seems to be
agreed that among animals "an early weaning is
conducive to a more frequent recurrence of
oestrous and an increased number of litters/' 46
Carr-Saunders says, "There is a considerable amount
of evidence to the effect that the continuance of
lactation some to extent inhibits heat in animals
and menstruation in women/' 47

Among certain tribes copulation is absolutely
prohibited during the period of lactation. Among
the north American Indians, the children are nursed
for 3 or 4 years during which time the woman
has no relations whatever with her husband.
There are other periods such as before crops are
planted, preparation for war or for a hunt, when
copulation is prohibited. Mills tells that a law
of Lhota Nagas requires a woman "to remain
chaste while her husband was away on a raid.'' 48

Abortion is universal practice among all primi-
tive people, and various methods are known and
practised by primitive women. Where pre-maritai

45 Man, On the Original Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands.
"F. H. A. Marshall, Physiohgy of Reproduction, 1910.
P 400,

47 Carr-Saunders, Op. Gt. t p. 102.

** Mills, The Lhota Nagas, 1922, p. 108.

8

114 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

licence is allowed, and most primitive tribes do
allow it, abortion is a necessary evil, for other-
wise, the couple have to marry to remove the
stigma of illegitimacy on the child born out of
extra-marital intimacy. Some tribes use certain
magical rites to procure abortion, others use certain
decoctions. Most frequently abortion is procured
by various violent physical means which are both
harmful and dangerous. Many tribes prohibit
parturition during the period of lactation and
when this period is extended for 6 or 7 years
pregnancies are relieved by abortion. About the
Nagas of Assam, Davis says, "It is impossible to
resist the conclusion that they are made away
with immediately after birth, or that abortion is
procured. The Aos have admitted to me that

abortion is always procured in such cases The

custom being one that is approved by Nagas, it
is impossible to expect them to give information
of the occurrence of such cases." 49 B. C. Allen
speaking of the hill tribes of India living in the
hills says, "Amongst theKukis, where marriage by
service is common, a strange custom is in force.
Cohabitation is freely permitted during the time
the lover is serving in the house of his sweetheart,
and pregnancy entails no disgrace, but the girls
must not bring forth a living child. About the
seventh month after conception an old woman
skilled in such matters is called in. This worthy
dame locates the position of the baby's head in
the womb, and strikes a sharp blow with a flat
stone, with the result that premature delivery
49 Davis, Census of Assam, 1891, p. 249.

THEIR CIVIL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 115

takes place, and the child is born dead/' 50

Abortion is also frequently practised among the
Hos of Singhbhum and the Khonds of Ganjam.
Abortion is not only common among the Indian
tribes but it is also to be found in other parts
of the world too. Bancroft says of the Nootka
Indians, "Women rarely have more than two or
three children, and cease bearing at about 25,
frequently preventing the increase of their family
by abortion. " 51

Infanticide among the primitive tribes is
due to multiple causes; weak children are often
exposed to wild animals, strangled or permitted to
perish. Sometimes the grandfather or father
struck the infant across its mother's knee and then
hit it on the head. Scarcity of food has led hunting
groups to put to death children and old people
whom they could not feed or who were considered
burdens on them in their march for unknown
asylums. The constant tribal warfare in NEFA,
among the Nagas, have produced unsettled con-
ditions and marriage by capture has made weaker
clans kill their women, particularly young ones to
escape the attention of stronger clans whose
frequent incursions for women or cattle have
been 3, constant source of terror to the weaker
clans. But for some time past female infanticide
has been much less than before as a result of
persuasion and threat by administration.

50

1 B. C. Allen, Census of India, 1901, Vol. IV., p. 68
51 Bancroft, The Native Races of Pacific States of North
America 9 p. 197.

y. TRIBES IN INDIA THE STATE
ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION

The Government policy regarding the abori-
ginal population areas was initiated in 17 8 z
following the uprisings of the Paharia and Santhal
tribesmen. Several uprisings of tribal people took
place beginning from Mai Paharia rising in 1772,
the mutiny of the Hos of Singhbhum in 1831, the
Khond uprising in 1 846, to the Santhal rebellion of
1885. In like manner a punitive expedition was
sent to the Jaintia Hills in 1744, to Chin Lushai
Hills between 1850-1890, to the Naga Hills in
1878, to the Abors in 1912. The underlying
causes of these uprisings were the deep dissatisfac-
tion created among the tribal people against
exploitation by their more advanced neighbours.
Following the measures taken principally in the
U. S. A., after the stage of initial exploitation was
over, to segregate the tribes into special areas of
reservation to protect their lives and interests, the
Government of India passed an Act in 1874 to
specify tribal areas into "Scheduled Tracts/' These
areas were reconstituted under Section 52 A of
the Government of India Act of 1919 and finally
in 1935 more stringent provisions for special
treatment of tribal areas were incorporated by
converting them into Total and Partially and
Excluded Areas. In the years following and up to
1 947 numerous Acts and regulations were promul-

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION

gated and various important reforms introduced, x
we shall content ourselves with the Government
measures taken since Independence.

The Constitution of 1947 includes clauses
concerning certain tribal areas in Assam and the
tribes and territories to be governed by special
regulations (Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled
Areas). 2

Part X Article 244 of the Constitution makes
special provisions for the autonomous administra-
tion of the tribal areas of Assam, in particular as
regards the allotment of land, taxation, education
and the control of moneylending and trading.
Other States having Scheduled Areas or Sche-
duled Tribes are to have Tribes Advisory Councils
to advise the authorities on the advancement and
welfare of aborigines, as may be referred to it by
the Governor or Rajpramukh. Further if the
President so directs, such a Council shall also be

1 For detailed information sec G. S. Ghurye :
Aborigines So-called and their future. Chapters, IV, V
and VI.

1 Scheduled Tribes means such tribes or tribal communi-
ties or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal com-
munities as are deemed under Article 342, to be Scheduled
Tribes for the purpose of Constitution. Scheduled Areas
means such areas as the President may by order declare to
be scheduled areas. These arc : Part A : (i) the United
Khasi-Tantia Hills Dist., ; (ii) Garo Hills Dist ; (iii) The
Lushaf Hills, (iv) The Naga Hills district; (v) The North
Cachar Hills, (vi) The Mikir Hills. Part B. North-East
Frontier Tracting including : (i) Balipara Frontier Tract,
(ii) Tirap Frontier Tract, (iii) Abor Hills Districts and
(iv) Mishmi Hills District and the (v) Naga Tribal Area.

Il8 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

set up in any State having Scheduled Tribes but
no Scheduled Areas therein. Tribes Advisory
Councils have so far been set up in Bihar, Bombay,
Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Orissa, Punjab, West
Bengal, Hyderabad, Rajasthan and Madhya
Bharat.

Part XIV of the Constitution defines the tribes
that are to enjoy special protection and provides
that for 10 years from the commencement of the
Constitution seats are to be reserved for them in
Parliament and in the State Legislatures in pro-
portion to their numbers, and that their claims
are to be considered in making public appoint-
ments. Hence, under Articles 330,332 and 334
of the Constitution, seats, proportionate as far as
possible to their population in the States, have
been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes in the Lok
Sabha and the State Vidhan Sabhas. The follow-
ing table gives a picture of the representation of
the tribal people, based on the 1951 census, in
the Central and State Legislatures :

Seats Reserved for the Scheduled Tribes

Total number of No. of seats reserTed
Seats for scheduled

tribes

Parliament 500 27

State Legislature 3,361 189

Legislative or executive measures have been
taken in many States to secure for them represen-
tation also in District Boards, Municipal Bodies
Local Boards and Village Panchayats.

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION 119

Out of the six District Councils proposed in
Table A, Para 20 of the Sixth Schedule of the
Constitution, five (for the United Khasi Jaintia
Hills District, Garo Hills District, Lushai Hills
District, North Cachar Hills District and Mikir
Hills District) have been set up in the tribal areas
of Assam. Each District Council is to consist of
not more than 24 members, of whom not less
than three-fourths should be elected by adult
suffrage. These Councils possess wide legislative
powers with respect to the allotment, occupation,
use or setting apart of land, the management of
any forest not being a reserved forest ; the use of
any canal or water-course for the purpose of
agriculture ; the establishment of village or town
committees ; the appointment or succession of
Chief and Headmen ; and the inheritance of pro-
perty, marriage and social customs.

In pursuance of the Articles 335 of the Cons-
titution, posts have been reserved and other
measures taken to ensure a larger number of
recruits from this class. For the Scheduled Tribes,
the Centre has reserved 5 per cent of the posts in
both the cases of recruitment by open competition
and those to be filled otherwise. Reservation of
posts as near to their population ratio as possible,
has been fixed for the Scheduled Tribes in all Part
A and in all but one Part B states. Saurashtra has
decided to reserve all and M. B. 50 per cent of
the vacancies for them until the fixed quota is
reached. The Government of Bihar has reserved
all vacancies in the Class IV services and the

120 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Government of Orissa jo percent in Classes III
and IV till their quota is filled up. The U. P.
Govt., has also instructed certain departments to
recruit only Scheduled Tribes till their prescribed
strength is reached. The Punjab Government has
decided not to retrench employees from these
classes as long as their number is less than the
fixed quota.

Article 338 further makes provision for the
appointment of a special body to investigate the
safeguards provided for tribal populations and
to report to the President on their working. This
body started functioning with effect from i8th
November, 1950 under a Commissioner assisted
by six Regional Commissioners with jurisdiction
over 17 States. The duties of this Commissioner
arc : (i) to investigate all matters relating to the
safeguards provided under the Constitution, and
(ii) to report on the working of these safeguards.
The Commissioner has so far submitted four
reports to the President, which all have been
debated in the Parliament. He is assisted by six
Assistant Regional Commissioners for the follow-
ing regions :

(i) Assam, Manipur, and Tripura.

(H Bihar and West Bengal.

(iii) Bombay, Rajasthan and Ajmer.

(iv) Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya
Pradesh and Bhopal.

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION

(v) Madras, Mysore, Travancore, Coorg and
Hyderabad.

(vi) Andhra and Orissa.

Article 275 requires that a special financial
grant should be provided for programmes for the
social and economic welfare of the tribal popula-
tion. Under this Article the Central Government-
has been giving grants for the welfare of ex-
Criminal Tribes since 1953. The following table
gives the details of expenditures on the welfare of
the Tribes in 1953-54 and 1954-55 :

Total Expenditure
(In Rs.)

1953-54 1954-55*
Part A. States

Scheduled Areas and Scheduled

Tribes 3>53>37>579 M9>7*,7*<>

Ex-Criminal Tribes 30,03^17 43,30,038.

Part B. States

Scheduled Areas and Scheduled

Tribes 77,61,021 46,49,280*

Ex-Criminal Tribes 3,27,876 9,59,145

Part C. States

Scheduled Areas and Scheduled

Tribes 31,23,715-

Ex-Criminal Tribes 2 9>95^ >5 2 > I 7 t

The First Five Year Plan gave a great impetus
to such welfare activities. It provided Rs. 39
crores of which Rs. 20 crores were allotted in the
plans of States and the balance was provided at the
centre. The Second Plan allocates a total of about
91 crores of rupees for the welfare of Backward

122 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

classes, of which Rs. 47 crores are for scheduled
tribes and scheduled areas; Rs. 27.5 crores for
scheduled castes, Rs. 4 crores for the former
criminal tribes.

The welfare activities of the tribal people and
their area may broadly be divided into four heads,
vi%. 9 educational, economic, health and housing
and other categories.

(i) Educational. Educational Extension measures
for increasing educational facilities for this sec-
tion have been taken. Emphasis is laid on voca-
tional and technical training. The concessions
include free tuition, stipends, scholarships and
he provision of books, hostel fees, stationery
tnd other equipment. In certain cases, the aid
eaxtends to clothing and mid-day meals. In
prhedominantly Scheduled Tribes areas primary
schools are opened and hostels run. The figures
fori9J3-j4, for thirteen States (for which infor-
mation is available) were thus:

Basic schools opened, 68; Primary schools
opened, 230.

Residential schools, 80 Adult education centres
opened, 169.

Stipends and scholarships given, 22,581; Grants
for books 30,035.

The central Government supplements the edu-
cational efforts of the States. Since 1944-45, the
Centre has been awarding scholarships to post-
matriculation students belonging to this class. The
amounts spent on this account were Rs. 2.2 lakhs

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION 12}

in 1951-52 ; Rs. 5.23 lakhs in 1952-53 ; Rs. 8.19
lakhs in 1953-54; and Rs. 12.65 lakhs in 1954-55.

(ii) Fjonomic or Reconstruction of Tribal Econo-
mics. Various schemes to protect the economic
interests of these people are in progress in all the
States. Andhra, Bihar and Bombay, Madras, U. P.
Orissa and Saurastra have been spending a good
deal of money on irrigation schemes, the reclama-
tion of wasteland and its distribution among the
members of the Scheduled Tribes. In addition,
facilities for the purchase of livestock, fertilisers,
agricultural implements, better seeds, etc., are also
being given to them. Some States have demonstra-
tion farms for training them in methods of scienti-
fic agriculture.

In many states, small-scale experiments have
been carried for evolving improved methods on
shifting cultivation and for establishing settled
agricultural colonies. In Assam since 1954
9 demonstration centres have been set up, 3 in the
Garo Hills district, 3 in Mikir Hills, 2 in Mizo
district and i in the North Cachar Hill district. At
these centres improved patterns of land utilization
are demonstrated to tribal people. These involve
afforestation of hill tops and slopes with wattle
plantation, cultivation of coffee, cashewnuts along
the slopes and soil conservation measures.

In Andhra, in the East and West Godawari
districts, colonization schemes have ^been under-
taken. Pilot schemes have also been introduced
in Bastar and other tribal districts in M. P. In
Orissa over 2,000 tribal families have been settled

124 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

in 69 agricultural colonies which have so far been-
established.

In Bombay, Hyderabad, Bihar and M. B the
bulk of the tribal people are already practising,
settled agriculture.

Cattle-breeding and poultry farming are also
being encouraged among these people by certain
States. Assam, Bihar, Bombay, U.P., West Bengal,
Hyderabad, and Pepsu are encouraging the
development of cottage industries by way of
loans, subsidies and through training centres.
During the First Plan 1 1 1 cottage industry centres
have been established in tribal areas. Peripatetic
demonstrations-cum-training parties have been
found useful in Bombay.

Multipurpose co-operative societies for giving
credit in cash and in kind to the Scheduled Tribes
have been established in Andhra, Bihar, U. P.,.
Madras, Orissa, W. Bengal, Hyderabad, and
Mysore. During the First Plan, 312 multipurpose
Co-operative Societies, were established in tribal
areas and in Orissa, Bihar and M. P. 3 50 grain:
*goles' set up.

Some States such as Bombay and Andhra
have also started various forest labour co-operative
societies in the interests of tribal labourers. During
this First Plan 653 forest labour co-operatives have
been established.

Legislation exists in almost all the States to
extend relief to indebted persons. Measures for
the abolition of debt bondage exist in Orissa,
Bihar, etc. In a number of States some relief by

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION 125

way of reduction on accumulated debts has already
been given and laws have been enacted for pro-
tecting the rights of the tribal communities in
lands occupied by them. Andhra, Assam, Bihar,
M.P., Orissa M. B., West Bengal and Bhopal have
tenancy laws to ensure security of land tenure
to the Scheduled Tribes.

(iii) Other Welfare Schemes. Other welfare
schemes include the grant of housing sites, free
or at nominal costs ; and the assistance by way of
loans, subsidies and grants-in-aid to local bodies
for the construction of houses; construction of
roads in the Scheduled Tribes Areas; extension
of medical help to the Scheduled Tribes, through
dispensaries and mobile medical units.

Progress under the Fkst Five Year Plan

Under the First Plan a provision of Rs. 39
crores was made for meeting the special needs of
this section. Of the total estimated expenditure,
a sum of over Rs. 11 crores was spent by the
State Governments on the provision of educational
facilities. Attempts are being made to impart
education to the tribal people in their regional
languages and primers have been prepared in
Hyderabad, Bihar, Assam and NEFA in the tribal
dialects. So far 8 tribal dialects have been taken
up. By the end of the First Plan about 4,000
schools will have been established in tribal areas of
different kinds This includes more than one
thousand Ashram Schools, Seva Ashrams Schools,
etc., were opened in the States of Bombay, Bihar,
Orissa, and M. P., and about 650 Sanskar Kendras,

126 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

Community Centres have been establish-
ed in the States of Bombay, M. B., Rajasthan,
Bihar. In NEFA training institutes have been
opened to train tribal teachers in Hindi and allied
subjects so that they can take over the teaching
of tribal boys and girls.

Attention has been given to the improvement
of means of communication in tribal and scheduled
areas. In addition to their other road development
programmes, a sum of about Rs. 6.5 crores has
been spent by the State Governments on the
construction of small approach roads, hill paths
and bridges in the areas inhabited *by the tribal
people. The Government of Assam was given a
special grant of Rs. 2.6 crores for the improvement
of communications in the tribal areas of that
State. In all, 2,340 miles of bridle roads or hill
paths were constructed in the States of Andhra,
Assam, Bihar, Orissa, M. B. and V. P.

Steps have also been taken to augment medical
and public health facilities in scheduled areas.
One of the principal difficulties experienced by
tribals concerns the supply of clean drinking water.
During the period of the first plan, more than
10,000 wells were provided. In addition to the
opening of 3,144 hospitals and dispensaries and
mobile health units in the tribal areas, medical aid
was given to these classes in the shape of free
distribution of medicine, reservation of beds, etc.

Special attention has also been paid to the
problem of shifting cultivation practised by tribals
in certain parts of the country especially in Assam,

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION 127

Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. Experiments have
been tried out in Assam, Andhra, Orissa and
Hyderabad with a view to encouraging tribals
practising shifting cultivation to take to settled,
methods of agriculture. Where jhuming continues
to be practised care has been taken to avoid indis-
criminate cutting down of forests and adequate
intervals between the cultivation on the same land
is provided for.

One of the major obstacles in the way of
implementation of the schemes for the welfare of
the Scheduled Tribes has been the lack of trained
personnel. To meet this problem the Government
of India have approved the formation of a new
cadre (described as the Indian Frontier Adminis^
trative Service), which will provide trained officers
for Grade I and Grade II administrative posts in
NEFA, Manipur and Tripura. Now institutes have
been set up in Bihar, Orissa, M. P. and Saurashtra
and NEFA for the training of field workers and
the tribal research.

Research Institutes have been set up in Bihar,
Orissa and M. P. for doing research on social orga-
nisations among the tribals and means of improving
their standards of living. These Research Institutes
consider a series of problems such as :
(i) shifting cultivation,

(ii) relation of the new Panchayat system to the^
former system of tribal justice and organisation,

(iii) incidence of diseases and epidemics and
study of dietary system,

(iv) sorcery and suicide,

128 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

(v) how far it is practicable and desirable to
replace native beverages, and

(vi) collection of literature on culture heroes,
local exploits i and moral values with a view to
obtaining suitable material for primers and text-
books in local languages.
Under the Second Plan

Under the Second Five Year Plan these problems
are to be tackled on a considerably expanded scale,
in which a total provision of Rs. 90 crores has
been made for the welfare of backward classes. Of
this amount nearly two-thirds (i.e. Rs. 47 crores)
will be devoted to programmes for the welfare of
the Scheduled Tribes and the development of the
scheduled areas. Among the programmes on which
the greatest emphasis is being placed is the settle-
ment of tribals practising shifting cultivation in
agricultural colonies. These colonies will be in the
nature of multipurpose projects where, in addi-
tion to plough animals, agricultural implements,
seeds, manure, etc., programmes such as minor
irrigation, demonstration farms, seed stores, ter-
racing of fields, housing, village and hill roads,
primary schools, supply of clean drinking water,
construction of houses, new roads, medical and
public health facilities, opening of new medical and
health units to eradicate diseases like V. D. and
leprosy, adult education, welfare and community
centres, veterinary facilities, co-operative societies
will be implemented.

Out of Rs. 47 crores, a little over Rs. 27 crores
are provided in the plans of the states and about

THE STATE ROLE IN THEIR REHABILITATION 129

Rs. 20 crores in the programme of the Central
Government. Of the total outlay on tribal welfare
programme, Rs. 1 1 crores are meant for communi-
cation ; Rs. 12 crores for development of tribal
economy ; Rs. 8 crores for Education and
Culture ; Rs. 8 crores for public health, medical
and water supply : Rs. 5 crores for housing and
rehabilitation and 3 crores for other purposes.

In the states priority has been given to the
development of communication for the construc-
tion of 10^200 miles of bridle and hill paths.
States have also provided for the development
of about 36,000 acres of land, regeneration of
6,570 acres of forest lands, distribution of imple-
ments and pedigree bulls, training of about
4,000 persons in various crafts and establishment
of 825 cottage industries centres.
Welfare Departments

The proviso to Article 164 (i) of the Constitu-
tion requires that in Part A States of Bihar, M. P.
and Orissa, Welfare Departments in the charge of
a Minister should be set up. There is a similar
provision under Article 238 VI for the Part B
States of M. B. By now independent Welfare
Departments have been set up in all the four States
as well as in Assam. Welfare Departments exist
in Andhra, Bombay, Madras, Punjab, U. P., West
Bengal, Hyderabad, Mysore, PEPSU, Rajasthan,
Travancore-Cochin, Ajmer, V. P. and Kutch. In
Bhopal, Coorg, Delhi, M. P., Manipur, and Tripura
the supervision of welfare activities has been
entrusted to existing departments.

9

8. SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

That there is a vast socio-cultural gulf between
the tribal groups, on the one hand, and the highly
civilized peoples of the neighbouring plains is fact
which can neither be denied nor ignored. Since
the attainment of freedom, increasingly greater
consideration is being given by all seriously think-
ing persons to the question as to what should be
the place of the tribal peoples in the framework
of Indian nation and how they should be developed
and brought to a level with the rest of the natio-
nals socially, economically, culturally and politically.

Three Solutions : (i) Assimilation

Various means of dealing with the problems

of aboriginals have been attempted but none have

met with any degree of success. One way of

dealing with the problem has been what may be

called the 'missionary solution/ This term may

be applied to any attempt to deal with aboriginals

not by solving their own problems from inside

and on the basis of their own life and culture, but

by changing them or assimilating them into a new

community. Both Christian Missionaries and Hindu

social reformers have tried to see the primitives

civilized, their inferior' social customs and ideas

eliminated and their identity assimilated either in

Christian Society or into the general framework of

Hindu Society.

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

This does not so much solve the problem
as substitute another problem for it. Instead of
poor aboriginals we have poor converts. If the
aboriginal becomes a Christian, he generally finds
himself deprived of the moral and social sanctions
under which he has grown up, of the free and
natural recreations to which he is accustomed,
and in many cases he sinks into moral and econo-
mic degradation. Besides most of them have
lost what is distinctly tribal and have adopted a
semi-western or Hinduised culture. Yet where
true religion is introduced and education and
reform conducted on sympathetic and scientific
principles, good often results, especially if econo-
mic improvement has preceded spiritual change.

Besides, the policy of complete assimilation also
does not conform to the trends of Indian history.
In spite of the millions of years of culture-contact
and inter-cultural borrowing, Indian society has
not become a homogeneous whole. It is still
composed of heterogeneous cultures like those of
Bhils, Santhals, Gond, Oriya, Kashmiri, and Telugu.
Hence, in this socio-historical context the adoption
of the policy of complete assimilation can be
regarded as wise.

(ii) Bringing down Tribesmen to Plains
The least satisfactory of the various solutions
offered is the geographical solution, a policy of
bringing the tribesman down to the plains. This
is most destructive and cruel of all the ways of
dealing with the problem. Economic collapse,
moral decadence and psychic despair inevitably

132 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

follow when Highlanders are forced away from
their beloved mountains to the plains. The policy-
has nothing to commend it and there is reason
to suppose that it is only advocated in the interest
of certain industrialists who hope that later on the
mineral and forest rights of the hills will be
available to them without tiresome dispute about
the human rights of poor and inconvenient
people.

Even apart from the rights of the aborigines,
the policy of stripping the hills of their inhabitants
is a bad one, for these wild and lonely tracts may
well become a 'Dark Continent 5 the breeding place
of ferocious animals and the refuge of dacoits.
Besides, there are already signs of land-starvation
everywhere and to give good and sufficient land
to lakhs of new settlers would only seriously dis-
turb the existing arrangements.

(iii) Isolation

Finally, we have the scientific solution. Scien-
tists and anthropologists are desirous to see that a
considerable measure of protection is given to the
aboriginals and some even like the establishment
of 'National Parks' or 'Reserves' where they could
live their own lives in unhampered liberty. They
all insist that the change must be extremely
gradual if it is not to be disastrous; and that
nothing should be taken away from primitive
people unless something else is ready to be put
in its place. The former British Government
tended on the whole to leave the tribals alone partly
because the task of administration (especially in

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM I 3 3

the wild border areas) was difficult and unreward-
ing ; partly from a desire to quarantine the tribes
from possible political infection and partly because
of the feeling that these people were better and
happier as they were.

There is no doubt that these special solutions
give aboriginal tribes considerable amount of
protection against exploitation and hostility to
sudden and large-scale encroachments on their
land and disregard for their social and religious
institutions. But it must be remembered that a
policy of segregation, though essential in early
stages, if not enough for complete isolation, has
never led to progress and advancement, but always
to stagnation and death. In every part of the
world such has been the case. From the abori-
gines of Australia to Aryan-speaking Khalars and
Kati tribes of the Rampur Valley of Chitral, it has
been amply demonstrated that isolation never leads
to progress. Civili2ation everywhere has been
built up by the contact and intercourse of peoples.
There are innumerable instances of the borrowing
of culture traits by the peoples of different places
such as articles of food, use of metals, domestica-
tion of animals, methods of agriculture, spread of
alphabet, etc. So long as the borrowing is natural
and in harmony with the cultural setting and
psychological make-up of the people it has been
entirely beneficial. The danger of contact lies
when it is sudden and indiscriminate and tends to
upset the tribal life by forced measures on unwill-
ing people, as the tragic history of the aboriginal

134 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

people of Australia, Melanesia and the U. S. A.,
has shown.

The policy of isolation runs counter to the facts
of the Indian situation. No iron-bar can be put
up between the 'tribals' and 'non-tribals.' The
tribals will be of greatest service to the country if
they are able to bring their own peculiar treasures
into common life, and * c not by becoming second-
rate copies of ourselves/' What we need is their
moral virtues, their self-reliance, their courage,
their artistic gifts and above all their cheerfulness.
Therefore, the policy of 'segregation' needs be
ruled out of consideration.

The Practical Solution

The other solution of the tribal problem in the
present situation would, therefore, lie in the
integration of the tribal peoples in the national
democratic set-up of the country. This integration
does not presuppose assimilation and is fully
compatible with heterogeneity of cultures of the
country. When the Punjabi, the Madrasi, Marathi,
Bengali, Oriya and Telugu cultures have not lost
their identity through vicissitudes of history and
still form integral parts of our society and nation
today, there is no reason why the Bhils, the Gond,
Kandh and Santhals should not be able to maintain
their identity and culture and yet be an integral
part of the nation. The Indian nation would not pro-
gress if a large section such as the tribals of the
population is isolated or lags behind. The national
plans of the economic development of the country
cannot also be formulated and executed if we

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 135

ignore the natural resources available in the tribal
areas, which fortunately are rich in this respect
and need a careful exploitation. Hence, the only
acceptable solution to the problem is that of
integration of the tribes in the Indian society so
that India would thus be a vast mosaic in which
the numerous ethnic and cultural groups would
constitute the component elements of diverse
colours and patterns. It is, therefore, essential that
if integration of the tribal people is to brought
about, the economic and educational standards of
the tribal groups should be brought on par with
the rest of the people. To achieve this object the
different tribal cultures will have to be studied
thoroughly and scientifically too. Otherwise,
the attempted measures for the advancement of the
tribes will go to waste, as it will be unrelated to
its cultural context.

It is interesting to note what Pandit Nehru has
said about these people and about the solution
of their problem. He observes, "They possess a
variety of culture and are in many ways certainly
not backward. There is no point in trying to
make them a second-rate copy of ourselves/' He
emphasized the importance of encouraging the tribal
languages, so that they would not omy prevail
but flourish. He insisted that a measure of
protection must be given so that "no outsider can
take possession of tribal lands or forests or inter-
fere with them in any way except with their consent
and goodwill ." He hoped that the high sense of
discipline, the power to enjoy life, the love of dance

136 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

and song would endure among the tribesmen.
Schemes for welfare, education, communications,
medical relief were no doubt essential but "one
must always remember, however, that we do not
mean to interfere with their way of life, but want
to help them to live it. The tribal people should
be helped to grow according to their genius and
tradition/*

The same policy has been admirably stated by
Shri Jairam Das Daulatram. He has said, "Each
section of our large population contributes to the
making of the nation, in the same manner as each
flower helps to make a garden. Every flower has
the right to grow according to its own laws of
growth ; has the right to enrich and develop its
own colour and form and to spread its own frag-
rance to make up the cumulative beauty and
splendour of the garden. I would not like to
change my roses into lilies nor my lilies into
roses. Nor do I want to sacrifice my lovely
orchids or rhododendrons of the hills/' 1

Pandit Nehru concludes his speech (delivered
at the opening session of the Scheduled Tribes
and Scheduled Areas Conference held in New
Delhi in 1952) in these words, "So far we have
approached the tribal people in one of the two
ways. One might be called the 'anthropological
approach* in which we treat them as museum
specimens to be observed and written about. To
treat them as specimens for anthropological
examination and analysis is to insult them. We

*Quotcd in The Advasis, 195 5, p. 22,

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 137

do not think of them as living human beings with
whom it is possible to work and play. The other
approach is one of ignoring the fact that they are
something different requiring special treatment and
of attempting forcibly to absorb them into normal
pattern of social life. The way of forcible assimila-
tion would be equally wrong."

It would, therefore, be quite clear from the
above abstract that the approach to the problem
should neither be that of 'isolation' nor of 'assimila-
tion/ but it should be that of developing the
synthesis without destroy ing the rare and precious
values of tribal people. "The desired integration
of the tribal groups in the national democratic
structure of India must be brought about without
suddenly uprooting them from their traditional
cultural moorings and thereby causing them
irreparable physical and psychological damage."

In the end certain suggestions may be offered
to improve the lot of the tribal people.

(i) It is recognised by all that it is essential to
raise the economically and educationally backward
tribal people to the general level of the other
sections of our nation. This can be done by mak-
ing necessary provisions for the education of these
people. A syllabus should be drawn up for the
primary stages incorporating activities familiar to
tribal folk ; and later to activities associated with
the culture of the more advanced folk of adjacent
regions. The content of the text-books that will
deal with such learning through doing should have
matter drawn from the tribal culture in the earlier

138 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

stages, and later incorporate lessons bearing on the
culture of their neighbours. The medium of
instruction should naturally be the mother-tongue
of the tribes. The regional language should have
its place as a subject of study in the upper forms.
A few new phonemes, to represent sounds similar
to the tribal language, should, however, be added.
These should be drawn up bearing in mind the
need of new phonemes for the various tribal
languages, so that no symbol should have more
than one sound, nor should the same sound be
indicated by more than one symbol in different
areas. The education imparted should be life-
centred.

(2) The tribal people in many areas have lost
their lands through the undesirable activities of
their neighbours. To protect them from losing
their land, it is essential that Land legislation
should be enacted and land should be redistributed
among them on the basis of economic holdings.

(3) Co-operative activities in the field of agricul-
ture should be encouraged through practical
instructions in the schools. Training should also
be given in schools to improve archaic tools and
implements. Modern technological advance should
also be introduced among the tribal people.

(4) The reconstruction of tribal economies
present a number of challenging problems and
it is essential that solutions should be based on a
close study of social, economic and technical
aspects. Among the more significant of these is
the question of 'shifting cultivation* and its

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 139

teplacement by 'settled agriculture/ It may be
remarked, in this connection, that if three basic
conditions are fulfilled, there can be no unwilling-
ness on the part of the tribals to give up shifting
cultivation. These conditions are :

(i) Provision of fertile land, and wherever
possible, of irrigated land ;

(ii) Assistance by way of bullocks, implements,
seeds, and finance ;

(iii) Steps to ensure that moneylenders and
merchants are not permitted to exploit the tribal
people.

Where Jhuming continues to be practised care
should be taken to avoid indiscriminate cutting
down of forests and adequate intervals between
the cultivation on the same land should be

provided for.

(5) A considerable portion of the tribal people
live in forest areas so that the manner in which
forest resources are exploited has a great deal of
bearing on their welfare. Care has, therefore, to be
taken to ensure that regulations relating to the
collection of forest produce, grazing, meeting
everyday requirements of firewood, etc., do not
cause hardship. In many ways penetration of forest
contractors into tribal economy has been harmful.
Hence, labour co-operatives should be started.
Forest contracts should be given to co-operative
societies and they should also be assisted in the
collection and processing of minor forest produce.
Tribal co-operatives, as far as possible, should be

140 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

multipurpose in character, providing for credit,
supply of consumer goods, and marketing at the
same time. This will relieve the tribal people from
the clutches of the rapacious moneylenders, mer-
chants or contractors, who sometimes acquire a
stranglehold over tribesmen and take away a large
proportion of the current produce.

(6) Although tribesmen live close to Nature,
invariably their health and physique are poor.
They suffer from various diseases like malaria, yaws,
tuberculosis, small-pox, and venereal diseases and
skin and eye diseases. In the main, these are due
to lack of clean drinking water, nutritive food
and of protection against extremes of climate.
Hence, dispensaries and mobile health units should
be organised on a much larger scale than at present.
Drinking water wells should be constructed on a
much wider scale. Indigenous systems of medicines
must be explored and simple natural remedies used
whenever possible. The doctors must reach these
tribesmen in a spirit of love, without any desire
to impose themselves upon them.

(7) The tribesmen have considerably inherited
skill and it is essential that their arts and crafts
should receive encouragement and support and
they should be given facilities for vocational and
technical training. There are large number of
subsidiary industries such as bee-keeping, basket
making, sericulture, lac and gum collecting,
catechu making, spinning and weaving, fruit
preservation and the manufacture of palm-gur
which can be profitably developed.

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

(8) The tribal areas are sparsely populated and
covered with forests ; they have heavy rainfall ;
the communications are difficult and limited and
few amenities have reached the people. The major
problem in these areas is the provision of means
of communication and transport. Efforts should,
therefore, be made to construct new paths and
roads, with bridges over the rivers and rivulets
with the co-operation of the people.

(9) Tribal welfare programmes have to be based
on respect and understanding of their culture and
traditions and an appreciation of the social,
psychological and economic problems with which
they are faced. The welfare and development
programmes in tribal areas inevitably involve a
measure of disturbance in relation to traditional
beliefs and practices. In their implementation,
therefore, the confidence of the people and the
understanding and goodwill of the elders of the
tribal communities are of the highest impor-
tance. The anthropologist, the administrator, the
specialist and the social worker have to work as
a team, approaching the problems of the tribal
people with sympathy, understanding and know-
ledge of the social psychology and the needs of
the tribal communities.

Tribal people have to be assisted through their
own institutions. Details of development pro-
grammes should be formulated in consultation with
members of Advisory councils, leaders of tribal
opinion and institutions engaged in the study of
tribal problems. The tribal people should feel

142 TRIBAL DEMOGRAPHY IN INDIA

that these programmes are, in a real sense, a
response to their own urge for better standards of
living and the development of their culture.

In the words of Pandit Nehru, "The last is
no easy one for it involves several ideals that have
rarely been found compatible. The first is to
preserve, strengthen and develop all that is best in
tribal society, culture, art and language. The
second is to protect the tribal economic rights.
The third is to unite and integrate the tribes in a
true heart-unity with India as a whole, so that they
may play a full part in their life. And the last is
to develop welfare and educational facilities so
that every tribesman may have an equal opportunity
with the rest of the fellow citizens who work in
the field, factories and workshops, in the open
country and the plains/'

Conclusion

To conclude it may be said that the aboriginals
are the real "Swadeshi" products or the 'oldest
inhabitants' of India, in whose presence every
one is a foreigner. These are the ancient people
with moral claims and rights thousands of years
old. They were here first; they should come first
in our regard too. These millions need freedom,
prosperity, peace, education, medicines, and new
systems of living. Hence, we must fight for
three freedoms, at least freedom from Fear, free-
dom from Want, and freedom from Interference.
We may see that the aboriginals get a square
deal economically. We may see that they are
freed from cheats and imposters, from the aggres-

SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM 14

sive landlords and the moneylenders, from
corrupt and rapacious officials. We may see that
they get medical aid from the doctors in the same
way just as we do. If there must be schools we
may see that these teach useful arts and crafts*
suited to their environment like carpentry and
agriculture, and not a useless literacy. We may
work to raise the prestige and the honour of the
aboriginals. We may guard them against adven-
turers who would rob them of their songs, their
dances, their festivals and their laughter. It can-
not be denied that the economy of tribal India
is fast changing. The only safeguard required is
to assure the tribal people of enough power to
prevent them from being converted into helpless
elements in a larger economic organisation which
they cannot wholly comprehend. The only way
to achieve it is through education and organisation,,
and the preparation to share with equality the
the burdens and the glories of the new Indian
economy which we all are trying to build up.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 147

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148 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Pt. Ill B.

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INDEX

Abor, 74

Aboriginals, 19,25
Abortion, 113,115
Acculturation, 46
Adivasis, 20,25,142
Adoption, 45
Agarias, 61
Agriculture, 54,55,58,139

Axe, 55

Settled, 58,139

Predatury, 55
Ainus, 69
Alpanoids, 16
Ancient Indians. 6
Andamane&e, 27
Angami Nagas, 9,27
Animists, 19
Armenoids, 16
Aryans, 3

Indo, 2,21
Aryo-Dravidians, 3
Assimilation, 46,130
Asur, 28

Backward Hindus, 19
Baigas, 19,73
Bagatas, 60
Bewars, 57
Birhors, 28
Bhils, 11,27,131
Bhotiyas, 61
Bodga, 57

C

Census, 19,26,27
Classification of Tribes, 33

Occupational, 4J

Territorial, 35

Linguistic, 39

Culture-Contact, 43
Communities, 22,26

Tribal, 22
Semi-Tribal, 22
Accultured Tribal, 22
Constitution, 31,117,118
Control of Birth. 112

D

Dabi, 57

Daya, 57

Deppa, 57

Dietaries, 68
Vegetarian, 72
Non-vegetarian, 72

Dinaric, 16

Divorce, 102

Dravidian, 2.5,21
E

Emigration, 32

F

Fecundity, 104,105
Fertility, 103,106,108,109
G

Ghasis, 61,71
Gondid, 6
Gonds, 6,21
Maria, 60

H

Handicrafts, 77
Health, 77
Hunting, 59

Nomadic, 59
Housing, 82
Hos, 5

Indid, 7
Infanticide, 115
Irulas, 61
Isolation, 132

150

INDEX

Jhum, 57,139

K

Kaddars, 4,9
Kadodi, 59
Kanets, 3,5
Kannikars. 4,74
Katkari, 28
Kharwars, 58
Khond, 28
KhiL 57
Kols, 11,62
Kolid, 7
Kolams, 58
Korwas, 28,73
Kota, 27
Kumari, 57

Lactation, 113
Lepchas, 3,13
Literacy, 79

M

Malid, 7
Malayam, 11
Marriage, 89,110

Child, 89

Widow, 89

Forms of, 98,100

Dissolution of, 102
Marital, 91

-Pre, 91,115

Extra, 91
Mediterranean, 8,14

Palac, 14
Menarche, 87
Mining, 61
Mongolians, 3
Mongoloids, 7,12

Palae, 7,12

Tibeto, 13
Mongolo-Dravidians, 3
Monogamy, 10
Muslims, 30,86

N

Nagas, 27

Angami, 27
Nayadis, 27
Negritos, 5,7,8,9,10
Nomadic, 54

Semi, 54
Nordics, 17

O

Oraons, 5
Oryas, 131

Penda, 57
Plan, first, 127

Second, 128
Plantation, 62

Labour, 62
Podu, 58

Polygamy, 100,101
Polygyny, 101
Polyandry, 100,101
Population, 1,25
Proto-Australoids, 7, 11,20
Pulayas, 4

R

Races, 1

Classification of, 2
Eickstcdt's classification of,
Guiffriad's ,,

Cuba's

Hadon's ,,

-Riseley's ,,

Raji, 74

S

Santhals, 5,11,27,131
Scytho-Dravidians, 4
Scheduled Areas, 117,136
Semi-Nagas, 13
Semitic, 16
Serf, Agricultural, 63

Types of, 65
Sex, 87

Distribution, 87

5
7
5
2,4

INDEX

15*

Tharu, 28,59
Todas, 28 69
Tribes, 19

Scheduled, 20,117,118

Criminal, 67

Ex-Criminal, 29,121
Tribal Economic, 123
Tribal People, 19

Assimilation of, 130

Classification of, 33

Distribution of, 23

Isolation of, 132

Process of Transformation of, 45

-Strength of, 24
Religion of, 26

U

Untouchables, 25
Uralis, 4,9,74

V

Veddahs, 5

W
Welfare, 125,141

Y
Yerrrvas, 11